Interesting Local Pronunciations of Place Names

[Robertpuant]

As a french Canadian, I have no idea how to pronounce ''Etobicoke''. Also, it must be really fun to hear an anglo trying to pronounce ''Sainte-Thérèse''.

[Rico Rommheim]

I, my name is Rico and hi live in eeeeeuuuuuh, in uh ouse far haway from wurk, dat is why I am retarded today at wurk.

[MTLskyline]

Originally Posted by Robertpuant

As a french Canadian, I have no idea how to pronounce ''Etobicoke''. Also, it must be really fun to hear an anglo trying to pronounce ''Sainte-Thérèse''.

I would pronouince Etobicoke as Etto-buh-co

Sainte-Thérèse I would pronounce Saint Tair-raise in English

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by someone123

French doesn't have the diphthong "oʊ" sound of English.

My father is Acadian, and I hear dipthongs not just when he's speaking Chiac but full-blown French. It may depend on the dialect.

In any event, these slight differences in an 'o' vowel sound we're debating are not a middle of the mouth 'a' sound, in "prɒgrɛs"

[vid]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

If you want to know what a Hamilton accent sounds like just listen to Andrea Horwath speak, hear her say "genuine". Ham-ill-ton.

Before I pushed play I knew she was going to say "JEN-you-whine". It's "JEN-you-win" up here. We're far more optimistic.

My Grade 10 tech teacher pronounced "ecosystem" as "echo system". That always bothered me. She was from the Ottawa Valley.

Originally Posted by MTLskyline

Sainte-Thérèse I would pronounce Saint Tair-raise in English

I would pronounce it something like "sant TAY-ress" with a back-of-the-mouth R like in rouge. I do those really well, it was always my favourite part of French class. Being able to pronounce that r.

With my luck I'm saying it wrong, though.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Yes, in Ottawa that would cross the line. For Amiens, I think the bad pronunciation reflects badly on the speaker, since the city name should be familiar.

This reminds me of names from my hometown of Kitchener, especially Weber Street (WEE-burr, not Web-ur) and the family name Wiebe (WEE-bee, not Weeb). I also wonder what outsiders will make of the renovated Breithaupt Block?

Bright-how(p)t.

[MTLskyline]

Originally Posted by vid

I would pronounce it something like "sant TAY-ress" with a back-of-the-mouth R like in rouge. I do those really well, it was always my favourite part of French class. Being able to pronounce that r.

With my luck I'm saying it wrong, though.

I'm not francophone, but I think the last part in Quebec French is pronounced more like TAY-rise (your r sound is right)

[eemy]

Brae-thop?

[vid]

It's obviously a German name, they don't have the th sound that we do. It's something more like "bright hopped" or "bright hoped".

[Aylmer]

Originally Posted by RyeJay

My father is Acadian, and I hear dipthongs not just when he's speaking Chiac but full-blown French. It may depend on the dialect.

In any event, these slight differences in an 'o' vowel sound we're debating are not a middle of the mouth 'a' sound, in "prɒgrɛs"

And Acadian is quite a dialect I had some acadian friends over and I'd never had such a hard time understanding my own language! It almost seems like the French equivalent of Afrikaans...

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

And Acadian is quite a dialect I had some acadian friends over and I'd never had such a hard time understanding my own language! It almost seems like the French equivalent of Afrikaans...

Francophones in the Winnipeg area, as well, have their own distinct sound. It is much more formal than to what I'm accustom. I must say for a relatively small country, population wise, Canada sports a lot of dialectal varieties within both official languages.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by RyeJay

My father is Acadian, and I hear dipthongs not just when he's speaking Chiac but full-blown French. It may depend on the dialect.

That may be true. I can barely understand some Acadians though, and that's an English feature that's been imported.

In any event, these slight differences in an 'o' vowel sound we're debating are not a middle of the mouth 'a' sound, in "prɒgrɛs"

Yeah, that shift is a purely English language thing. There are also different "a"-like sounds made depending on the accent. Some Americans basically pronounce "o" as "a" in some situations. Some Newfoundlanders do it too.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by RyeJay

Francophones in the Winnipeg area, as well, have their own distinct sound. It is much more formal than to what I'm accustom. I must say for a relatively small country, population wise, Canada sports a lot of dialectal varieties within both official languages.

Francophone accents in Canada vary from province to province, and even within the provinces (Gaspésie vs. Montreal, northern NB vs. Moncton, etc.).

What is funny is that in spite of the obvious differences (to us), if you go to France the vast majority of people find that Québécois, Acadians, Franco-Ontarians, Franco-Manitobans (and even Franco-Americans from New England) sound pretty much the same.

[le calmar]

As a francophone I'm having a hard time trying to distinguish the different English accents across North America. It also took me a while to be able to distinguish the accents in France. Here in Quebec we are usually aware of the existence of two accents in France, the southern accent and the rest of France (commonly called the typical "French accent") while in reality there are litteraly tons and tons of different accents. Where I was living there was the dauphinois accent around Grenoble, the savoyard further in the valley, and another "accent" in Lyon, just 150 km away. In the next valley just across the mountains further south there was a very noticeable provencal accent. Across the Vercors (20 km as the crow flies) people spoke with a southern accent, and across the Chartreuse (more or less 30km) you could notice a German influence.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by le calmar

As a francophone I'm having a hard time trying to distinguish the different English accents across North America.

I am a francophone but lived much of my life in "English Canada" and still have a lot of trouble distinguishing neutral-accented Canadians from neutral-accented Americans. Say, someone from Vancouver or Toronto and someone from Minneapolis or Bakersfield, California. Though the obvious outliers (southern U.S., Newfoundland, etc.) are instantly recognizable to me, but there is a huge chunk of the continent's population that I really can't tell if they are Canadian or American, unless I am having a long enough conversation with them for them to drop in a few cues that might reveal their nationality.

This also makes me think that I got into trouble a few times when I first started visiting Montreal regularly, and was chit-chatting with people (sitting next to me at a Habs game, or in a restaurant, etc.). On occasion I have been talking with people who seemed to have no discernable knowledge of French whatsoever, and based on this apparent fact and also perceived accent, innocently (enough) asked them what part of the States they were from, or where they were visiting Montreal from, only to have them answer somewhat irritatedly that they were born and raised right around the corner!

I quickly learned to stop doing this!

[vid]

I grew up with speech impediments, so for much of my teenage years, people asked me if I was British. Not language related, but when you walk around your home town with a backpack all the time, people assume you're a tourist.

[Aylmer]

Tourists in Thunder Bay? Don't be silly, Vid.

[davidivivid]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

Tourists in Thunder Bay? Don't be silly, Vid.

[Boris2k7]

Originally Posted by Ayreonaut

My dad's gf says Cue-beck. Then again, she pronounces pillow as "pellow", celery as "salary", and half her vocabulary is completely self-invented.

I'm in the Kwuh- crowd.

I have a coworker who pronounces it as Cue-Beck (with a stress on the first part, so it sounds like 'queue') as well. I thought he was the only one...

For myself, it tends to come out as K'beck.

[Boris2k7]

Some more Alberta fun...

Tsuu T'ina (Soo-teena or Soo-tenna) -- often mispronounced as Soo-seena
Siksika (seeg-see-ka or seek-see-ka) -- emphasis is on the last syllable but it's often heard as Seek-seeka

http://www.calgary20.ca/education/28...them-correctly