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joeclark

joeclark

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Subject line says it all: Since nobody else was making a public list after I asked the LazyWeb to do it in several places, let’s start here. I wish we had real HTML to use, but forum software is notoriously bad at that. In difficult cases I will use International Phonetic Alphabet, which I’m sure you’ll all enjoy.

501 Queen (and related)
  • Sumach St. is not pronounced “sumickâ€
  • Sackville St. has an [ɪ] as last vowel, not a schwa

31 Greenwood
Mountnoel Ave. is two syllables and has nothing to do with Christmas (Noël)

Subway
  • Chester is two syllables, primary stress on the first, with a schwa as last vowel and no aspirated T
  • Bloor is one syllable, not two; it is not pronounced “bluewerâ€
  • Bathurst has no phoneme [h]
  • Summerhill is not two words with equal primary stress and a pause between them; it is not Summer… Hill

All subway lines
Stop announcing station names? As questions? “The next station is Queen’ Park?â€
 
My nomination for the most mispronounced stop is on the 41 Keele route for "Ypres Road".

She pronounces it to rhyme with "Cypress" or "Cyprus". It's actually pronounced something like "e-pra" (or ē'prə))

The station announcment needs to be simplified: Dundas Station is next, Dundas" or "Dundas is next, Dundas Station", and I agree, for many stations, it's posed as a question.
 
joeclark said:
[*]Bloor is one syllable, not two; it is not pronounced “bluewerâ€
Click to expand...

That's a matter of opinion. Much like Moore as Mew-er or More. Most people that I've known over the age of 65 and who were Toronto born pronounce it that way. Likewise Sherbourne as "Sure-burn", not Sure-born, or Sheer-born.

As an aside, my great grandmother, born in Toronto in the 1870's (I never met her) was apparently a stickler for the pronunciation of Spandina as Spa-dine-a, as back then the way one pronounced it apparently denoted class. So a socialite, such as herself, would never prounounce it Spa-deena, or anyother variant, which was considered declasse. What a curious place Vicotrian Toronto was.
 
Most people say Bloor with one syllable, therefore, it should be announced that way.

The subway announcements also say "York Mill" (leaving out the s), and Eglington (again, a small minority mispronouncing it doesn't justify misannouncing it, too).
 
The decision not to use consistent stop names in both directions when cross streets differ on either side has created some odd situations.

- On the St. Clair streetcar westbound, the stop with "DUNVEGAN" in big letters is announced as "Warren Road".
- The "VAUGHAN" stop is announced as such on the 512 and 126, but is called "Raglan Road" on the 90.
- On the 506, Queen's Park station is located at University Ave when you're going eastbound, but is located at Queen's Park Crescent when you're westbound.
 
scarberiankhatru said:
Most people say Bloor with one syllable, therefore, it should be announced that way.
Click to expand...

That's very subjective, as most people I know would say it Bluewer. So there's no right or wrong there, or at least no clear way to determine an absolute answer.

Glencairn however is not Glen-karen.
 
Bloor rhymes with floor, thats how I don't expect a sapphire mineshaft around the next exit, lol! I think Sherbourne's like Cher-born. Glencairn (GlencARN)truly is an oddity, I've heard of silent vowels but not invisible ones.
 
SeanTrans said:
My nomination for the most mispronounced stop is on the 41 Keele route for "Ypres Road".

She pronounces it to rhyme with "Cypress" or "Cyprus". It's actually pronounced something like "e-pra" (or ē'prə))
Click to expand...

I'm no fan of mispronunciation, but on this one in particular I think Canadians might have a valid historical argument for continuing the error. Ypres (in West Flanders, Belgium) is the town closest to the site of three major WWI battles, the last of which (Passchendale) lasted six months and resulted in half a million dead (16,000 Canadians). As a result, Ypres was commonly referenced in homefront news reports around the empire.

Quoth the wiki:

English-speaking soldiers in that war often referred to Ypres by the (perhaps humorous) mispronunciation "Wipers". British soldiers even self-published a wartime newspaper called the "Wipers Times".​

Now, it could be that the TTC's mispronunciation has nothing to do with an arcane WWI pet-name, but it's also possible that someone in the TTC's a/v booth has a sense of history.

p.s. This post is in no way an endorsement of the hubristic stupidity of imperialists who cannot even be bothered to learn the names of the places they invade.
 
voxpopulicosmicum said:
p.s. This post is in no way an endorsement of the hubristic stupidity of imperialists who cannot even be bothered to learn the names of the places they invade.
Click to expand...

The rest of your post is a good point, but considering the thousands of Canadians who died there, it's hard to let this go. Ypres, a town in Belgium, was most certainly not invaded by the British. Hundreds of thousands of British and Canadian soldiers gave their lives to liberate that area from the Germans who did indeed invade without provocation and in violation of Belgium's neutrality. C'mon, this is basic Canadian (and world) history.
 
Not a mispronounciation, but I've noticed that sometimes on the 75 Sherbourne it says/displays "Welleley Street East" while other times it just says/displays "Wellesley Street." Of course, it should say/display "east" as Wellesley has two branches.

Also, I've noticed the Victoria Street stop on the 501 Queen now says/displays "Victoria Street, St. Michael's Hospital." Probably as a means of trying to justify this useless stop.
 
I don't think the East/West is necessary. People don't generally give directions using the east/west thing, they usually just say "turn left at Lawrence" or "get off the bus at St. Clair".

Strange about Victoria Street. Though I do notice that the announcement for the 505 at Bathurst adds Toronto Western Hospital, as well as the 511 at Nassau (but not at Dundas).
 
I think the "east" and "west" is a bit important as sometimes people don't realize they are on the wrong side of Yonge than where they need to be. Still though, it should at least be consistent. Why sometimes the "east" and why sometimes no "east" on the same route day after day?
 
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