Street names in Canada

[niwell]

It seems like an easy one for anyone with an anglo-saxon background but I hear Queen's Quay being mispronounced a LOT. I was called an elitist by an acquaintance from the Ottawa Valley after correcting him (partly a joke but partly not).

For those wondering it's pronounced "Queen's Key" but the mispronunciation is "Queen's Kway".

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Acajack

In Toronto, I never know if I should say Islington as "Izz-lington" or "Eye-lington" My hunch is that it's "Izz-lington".

Which would be the (North) American way of saying such words. I may be wrong but suspect in the UK and Oz they might say "Eye-lington".

Your hunch is correct! It's pronounced the same way in the UK too.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by niwell

Your hunch is correct!

One thing I also noticed is that in North America names like Gladstone and Johnstone rhyme with "stone", whereas in the Commonwealth (except for Canada I guess) they are said the exact same way as if there was no E at the end.

So Gladston = Gladston

And Johnstone = Johnston

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by niwell

Your hunch is correct! It's pronounced the same way in the UK too.

So no one in the world says "Eye-lington"?

[eemy]

Random quite interesting fact, apparently isle and island have different etymologies. Island is actually from Old English (igland->iland->island) while Isle is from Latin (insula->ile->isle).

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by niwell

I usually hear RON-sez-vaal - not sure which is correct and I know I have seen articles online debating the correct pronunciation. Most people simply call it "Roncey" which kind of irks me for some reason but is certainly easier. I catch myself doing it from time to time...


I think every decent sized city has a few streets with weird pronunciations or spellings. Personally I find it adds character. And it's funny to hear people from out of town attempt to pronounce it.

When I lived in Parkdale, decades ago mind you, is was RON-sez-vales.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

In Toronto, I never know if I should say Islington as "Izz-lington" or "Eye-lington" My hunch is that it's "Izz-lington".

Which would be the (North) American way of saying such words. I may be wrong but suspect in the UK and Oz they might say "Eye-lington".

Definitely Izz-lington. Reminds me of Eglinton, which more often than not is pronounced as if it had a second "g".

Tretheway is Treth-Huey or Treth-YOU-ee, no?

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

So no one in the world says "Eye-lington"?

Are you thinking it's like Islay?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Are you thinking it's like Islay?

I dunno, honestly. It's not from me. I think it was a Kiwi or an Aussie I was with in Toronto one time who sais "Eye-lington".

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Definitely Izz-lington. Reminds me of Eglinton, which more often than not is pronounced as if it had a second "g".

Tretheway is Treth-Huey or Treth-YOU-ee, no?

There was journalist in Ottawa by the name of Colin Tretheway or Tretheway a few years ago. IIRC he pronounced it quite phonetically. Like "treth-way" or "treth-wee".

[eemy]

I often tune out the parts of the traffic that don't concern me, but I could swear I've heard it pronounced tre-the-way (both e's as in bet, and a soft th as in thorn) on CBC.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

Random quite interesting fact, apparently isle and island have different etymologies. Island is actually from Old English (igland->iland->island) while Isle is from Latin (insula->ile->isle).

English is full of that. Almost every concept in English has an Anglosaxon/Old English way of saying it, and a French/Latin way of saying it. Usually the Anglosaxon way is more casual/colloquial while the French/Latin way is more formal/literary.

Here's a bunch of pairs of this--in all of these, the first word is Anglosaxon-origin and the second word is French/Latin origin:
behead / decapitate
wrong / false
sheep / mutton
birthday / anniversary
piss / urine
hurt / pain
answer / respond
before / prior
begin / commence
belly / abdomen
brotherly / fraternal
.. and literally hundreds more.

This all stems from the situation in Medieval England, where all the upper classes spoke French while the commoners spoke English; the French influence survived in English by being used as the language's "refined" words.

At various points in history, some writers (such as George Orwell, for example) have often made the deliberate choice of using Old English origin words as much as possible as a nationalist or populist statement:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingui...ism_in_English

[Loco101]

Here are some street names that people from out of town often can't pronounce correctly in Timmins:

Guess how they are pronounced: (I left out the accents on the French names on purpose because English speaking people here don't use them and you can pronounce them in the anglicized way)

Mattagami
Strachan
Theriault
Rochdale
Moneta
Wende
Belanger
Tyyne
Kamiskotia

[niwell]

My coworker from Calgary via Cape Breton randomly asked me to try and pronounce 3 CB towns today. I got them all wrong. I'm trying to find them on google maps but failing. One almost had an inuktitut spelling.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Loco101

Guess how they are pronounced:

Mattagami
Strachan
Theriault
Rochdale
Moneta
Wende
Belanger
Tyyne
Kamiskotia

Mah-TAH-ge-mee
Strawn
Terry-oh
Roke-dale
Ma-neh-ta
Wen day
Be-lon-jhay
Tin
Ka-mis-ka-cha
?

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Mah-TAH-ge-mee
Strawn
Terry-oh
Roke-dale
Ma-neh-ta
Wen day
Be-lon-jhay
Tin
Ka-mis-ka-cha
?

The only potential error I could see with Mattagami would be to put the emphasis on the third syllable rather than the second.

Rochdale is RAWSH-dale, at least if one is talking about Toronto history (and if so "ROACH-dale" would be perfectly understandable!). How soon we forget!

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by niwell

It seems like an easy one for anyone with an anglo-saxon background but I hear Queen's Quay being mispronounced a LOT. I was called an elitist by an acquaintance from the Ottawa Valley after correcting him (partly a joke but partly not).

For those wondering it's pronounced "Queen's Key" but the mispronunciation is "Queen's Kway".

"kay" or "kway" are probably the most common ways it's pronounced here, but it's not a common term at all. Wharf would be the common one.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Loco101

Here are some street names that people from out of town often can't pronounce correctly in Timmins:

Guess how they are pronounced: (I left out the accents on the French names on purpose because English speaking people here don't use them and you can pronounce them in the anglicized way)

Mattagami
Strachan
Theriault
Rochdale
Moneta
Wende
Belanger
Tyyne
Kamiskotia

Mattah-Gamie
Strakkan
Tare-O
Rockdale
Moe-Neat-ah
Wendy
Bell-On-Zhay
Tine
Kamis-Coach-Ah

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

"kay" or "kway" are probably the most common ways it's pronounced here, but it's not a common term at all. Wharf would be the common one.

Oh no, Quay is still always pronounced "key", even in NL (i.e. Badgers Quay is pronounced badgers key). The American spelling is actually key, but it's the same thing.

[ue]

I always pronounced quay as "kway". We don't even have quays here so what do I know!