# Toronto - local pronounciation



## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

So I just saw this , this morning and thought, WTF?









Turonno License Plate Lapel


To me it was always Torrona (rhymes with "Donna" as per the Cannuk classic Switchin to Glide). With some leeway given to the terminal vowel e.g how drunk you are, also contextually - e.g. O (vs A) if speaking to non-native; full T if speaking to someone that's not even here (e.g. on the phone with tech support). But that first vowel is definately an O not a U... right?

Frankly, at this point the only person who could convince me that Turonno is correct is Roscoe from Chimo who has become my yardstick for all things Hoser, but I am curious what the consensus here would be.


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## Guest (Mar 26, 2018)

I always thought that it's Tranna.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Is T.O. totally outdated/not used?


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## LanceT (Mar 7, 2014)

How about 'Toronto' ?


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

LanceT said:


> How about 'Toronto' ?


I'll forgive you because you're an Ontario-hating British Columbian. Yes, obviously we all say it _that_ way in a formal setting (sober and wearing a suit or, as suggested in my OP, talking on the phone to someone not from here and not present here), but like in everyday casual conversation to other locals when we are not trying to be proper at all and not employing any pretense or otherwise being mindful about it.



laristotle said:


> I always thought that it's Tranna.


I consider that a subset of Toronna, but more like: T 'ronna. Def not 2 As in there though I could understand writting it out that way ( because it is fundamentally a spoken-only word) as Tran vs Tron are very close especially when slurred and phonetics can be a tad subjective. 

I am also starting to wonder if there are regional accents in play here.


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## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

"Hey little Donna... still wanna... you said to call you up when I was in Tranna"...


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## Guest (Mar 26, 2018)

Urban Dictionary: Tranna


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## LanceT (Mar 7, 2014)

Granny Gremlin said:


> I'll forgive you because you're an Ontario-hating British Columbian.


That's funny because if we said it any other way here locally, no-one would know what we were talking about. A little hint why is our connection to the Far East. 
My biggest connection too to Toronto is business related so it stands it would be properly pronounced. ( I actually really like Ontario, as I do most of Canada)


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

laristotle said:


> Urban Dictionary: Tranna


Yeah, because you need some sort of credentials to edit/create those entries. I'd disqualify it based on the example sentence - no hoser talks about the beautiful game that way; probably written by a Yank (it does sound like a Toledo, maybe Rochester, accent).

Oh and to prove my first point, I could just hit the button on this:


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## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

The locals always seem to have a unique way of pronouncing their home town names. When I went to Vancouver a few years back I noticed all the locals seemed to pronounce it VanQuever.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

I think the last vowel is the critical one. Before _switchin' to glide_ there was this, though it's still a little vague.


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## Guest (Mar 26, 2018)

Granny Gremlin said:


> Oh and to prove my first point, I could just hit the button on this:


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## LanceT (Mar 7, 2014)

Hamstrung said:


> locals seemed to pronounce it VanQuever.


My wife pronounces it Voncouver. I just call it a dump.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

Traunna

(I did work there for 35 years)


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

Robert1950 said:


> Traunna
> 
> (I did work there for 35 years)


Again, think we're having a phonetic nitpick here: 'au' in this case sounds like the 'o' in T 'ronna above (see '*aut*o' vs 'electr*o*n')


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

Granny Gremlin said:


> Again, think we're having a phonetic nitpick here: 'au' in this case sounds like the 'o' in T 'ronna above (see '*aut*o' vs 'electr*o*n')


Damn right !!*#*(


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## JazzyT (Nov 1, 2017)

Hamstrung said:


> The locals always seem to have a unique way of pronouncing their home town names. When I went to Vancouver a few years back I noticed all the locals seemed to pronounce it VanQuever.


Plus, you need to "up talk" and raise the pitch of your voice as you say it so that the "Van-Q-ver" sounds like a question: "Van-Q-ver?"


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Name of Toronto - Wikipedia

Mnjikaning Fish Weirs - Wikipedia

"The weirs – historically called _ouentaronk_ (Huron) and _tkaronto_ (Mohawk) – are believed to have provided the City of Toronto with its name, following a series of copy errors.[3][4] They were in use for about 5,000 years, until about the early 1700s.[5] Samuel de Champlain recorded their existence on September 1, 1615, when he passed the weirs with the Huron en route to the battle with the Iroquois on the south east side of Lake Ontario."

Interesting that it appears to have been the prior name of the Atherley Narrows. I've stopped there a few times over the years to fish, buy gas, etc. The Atherley Arms Hotel was some respite too, but that was many years ago.

It would be interesting to hear how it was, or might have been, originally pronounced. If my Mum was still alive (she spoke some Ojibway, and had experience with Blackfoot and Mohawk peoples) she might have some idea. Anyone?

As for how my family pronounces Toronto, some were even born there, others live there (though God only knows why) T'ronna or T'raunna, I suppose, except they're less inclined to those than Toronto.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

I say it in french. Toronto.


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

Apparently the Turonno people are a slim silent majority so far. All you T 'ronna/T' raunna people click option 2 dammit.


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

I voted for Turonno, but I pronounce it more like Tronno.



jb welder said:


> I think the last vowel is the critical one. Before _switchin' to glide_ there was this, though it's still a little vague.


Classic


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## LowWatt (Jun 27, 2007)

Tron-O for me.


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## leftysg (Mar 29, 2008)

Listen to how these guys say it, they've got a key after all! Disclaimer: they don't actually say it but others do a few times! 

[video]


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

The transliteration of one language into the phonemic representation in another one is always tricky.

What one person might write as T' for a passing touch of the tongue to the upper palate, another might portray as Ta, another portray as Tuh, while another omits anything between the T and R. They all attempt to depict the same thing, but the alphabet and phonemic equivalencies don't permit anything that all would agree on as identical.

Personally, I don't see anything misrepresentive of "Turonno", but I understand how others might see it as mispronouncing the name. I just try and drive through it or around it as efficiently as I can.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Turonno now that I think about it.


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

Hamstrung said:


> "Hey little Donna... still wanna... you said to call you up when I was in Tranna"...


Listen to it again; he says Toronna (it needs the extra syllable there to work in the melody). But I will accept T'ronna as mentioned above, because it's a further slurring/contraction of the same vs a totally different vowel (though the way you write it implies a short A sound there after the R, think Tranny, and that is def wrong and not what he sings, and I did just listen to check... besides it then don't rhyme with Donna or Wanna, the latter of which also has an A there but if we are spelling phonetically that A in Wanna is making an O sound - English is a bitch for the exceptions).



mhammer said:


> The transliteration of one language into the phonemic representation in another one is always tricky.
> 
> What one person might write as T' for a passing touch of the tongue to the upper palate, another might portray as Ta, another portray as Tuh, while another omits anything between the T and R. They all attempt to depict the same thing, but the alphabet and phonemic equivalencies don't permit anything that all would agree on as identical.
> 
> Personally, I don't see anything misrepresentive of "Turonno", but I understand how others might see it as mispronouncing the name. I just try and drive through it or around it as efficiently as I can.


Spoken like a true non-Toronnan ;P 

Yes, I did touch on that with the AU vs O bit, and contraction vs not, etc, but as mentioned earlier in this post re the A, a U is also wrong here (this whole thread is IMHO obviously) because I ain't never heard no Torontonian say Touronno, which is what a U there would imply phonetically. It doesn't even make from an anthropological viewpoint; local nicknames or shortcut pronounciations would not draw out the first syllable (which brings me back to the contraction being valid). I mean we are not gonna argue over the actual spelling of Toronto; that's kinda indisputable - yes phonetics are imperfect in that, as you say, there are a few ways to skin a cat, but that's all we got for this exercise. Ssome things are definately not the same as others however - there is a big difference between changing the sound of the first vowel vs, for example, adding an H at the end after the terminal A; the latter is still essentially the same thing but drawing attention to the drawl of the ending.


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## Distortion (Sep 16, 2015)

just don't call it the six.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Distortion said:


> just don't call it the six.


Or what? A large number of people will know where you're referring to.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Whatever happened to "the big smoke"?


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Anyone who calls it TORONTO isn’t from southern Ontario...


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2018)

mhammer said:


> Whatever happened to "the big smoke"?


or Hogtown?


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

We used to call it T.O.


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## Lola (Nov 16, 2014)

Nah. None of the above.

I want to be a part of the groovy cat scene here in Pickering and call it T O. Simple and no mistaking those two letters. Hell, how can you twist T O differently or use it in street slang? You can’t!


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## Lola (Nov 16, 2014)

laristotle said:


> or Hogtown?


Isn’t Hogtown Hog’s hollow?


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

To want to?


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## leftysg (Mar 29, 2008)

Tronto...like the Lone Ranger's buddy.

[video]


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## Lola (Nov 16, 2014)

Lola said:


> Nah. None of the above.
> 
> I want to be a part of the groovy cat scene here in Pickering and call it T O. Simple and no mistaking those two letters. Hell, how can you twist T O differently or use it in street slang? You can’t!


I stand corrected as you could say TO pronounced toe


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

Yes, there are other nicknames for Toronto. Those are out of scope for this poll. This poll is for local pronunciations of the full proper name Toronto (which, @Scotty , ppl from S ON do actually say, occasionally in formal circumstances - see local born n raised anchormen; politicians etc,). TO, TDot, Hogtown, Big Smoke etc - these are all separate nicknames.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

In some places I have heard it (sarcastically) referred to as "the centre of the universe".....lol.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Idiot, I lived in the city or area for around 30 years and if you're going to shorten it, it's Tronno.

Thank you,

Steadfastly
From Minnow, NB


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Jim DaddyO said:


> In some places I have heard it (sarcastically) referred to as "the centre of the universe".....lol.


I was downtown today. With the way they have the roads screwed up I think arshole of the universe might be more accurate.


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