"Kanada" in the modern Iroquoian alphabet would actually be pronounced as "gaaa-naaa-taaa'. Each 'aaa' represents an 'a' sound that has to be drawn out to take a long time to say--length of time vowels are drawn out for actually has meaning in the Iroquoian languages. Appending a vowel with an 'h' means to say it for a medium amount of time, appending it with an apostrophe means say it quickly, and not appending anything means say it slowly. Generally in English, most of our vowels are said in what they would call medium time.
 
Johnny Au said:
Ask a Vancouverite (I know a few personally, despite me not being from Vancouver). That city has a rapid transit line called the Canada line, with the name of that line being from an aboriginal word for "village."
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Albeit from an indigenous language not spoken in the Vancouver area ...
 
44 North said:
We're probably the only city in the world to have a First Nations / aboriginal word as the name of a rapid transit line.
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That might also be because for so long we've given them names instead of using colours and/or numbers. There are transit systems in countries like Brazil and Mexico where many stations have indigenous names (or derivations thereof), mostly because of the neighbourhoods or major streets they serve, and some lines might have been given indigenous names had they been assigned the names of their terminal stations instead.

For example, four lines on the Mexico City metro terminate at Pantitlán (Nahuatl for 'between flags'). Every station on the system has a logo alluding to its significance, including the meaning of the native name.

São Paulo's line 1/blue might otherwise have been the Tucuruvi-Jabaquara line ('green grasshopper' and 'touch of fire', respectively, in Tupi).
 
Yeah, I clearly wasn't thinking when I wrote that. I'm sure there are plenty of examples. I'll bet there's a few in Australia as well. And another one (though unbuilt) would be Hurontario LRT. But I'd still prefer this line to be Yonge-Spadina than Yonge-University. Regardless if it's an FN word or not, "Spadina" sounds so much cooler than "University". And TBH I always thought it was a Latin word...it does sounds a lot like Esplanade.
 
44 North said:
Yeah, I clearly wasn't thinking when I wrote that. I'm sure there are plenty of examples. I'll bet there's a few in Australia as well. And another one (though unbuilt) would be Hurontario LRT. But I'd still prefer this line to be Yonge-Spadina than Yonge-University. Regardless if it's an FN word or not, "Spadina" sounds so much cooler than "University". And TBH I always thought it was a Latin word...it does sounds a lot like Esplanade.
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To be honest, I prefer Yonge-University to Yonge-Spadina. The connection of multiple universities along the line is part of it, but also to avoid the potential naming conflict with the Spadina Streetcar ROW, which is only going to grow in importance as the high density development of the CBD stretches further west. Obviously the co-naming isn't critical, but it could potentially confuse some tourists, especially considering the Spadina Streetcar and the Spadina Subway only connect two points at the very ends of the streetcar route, and run parallel to eachother through downtown several blocks apart.

I can just imagine a tourist at Queen & John asking somebody "where is the Spadina line?", and a fair amount of confusion resulting. Or the tourist mistakenly thinking that the Spadina Subway actually runs underneath Spadina (how silly of them). At least with University, it's reflective of the street name of the section of the line that most tourists will be using (in downtown).
 
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gweed123 said:
To be honest, I prefer Yonge-University to Yonge-Spadina.

I can just imagine a tourist at Queen & John asking somebody "where is the Spadina line?", and a fair amount of confusion resulting. Or the tourist mistakenly thinking that the Spadina Subway actually runs underneath Spadina (how silly of them). At least with University, it's reflective of the street name of the section of the line that most tourists will be using (in downtown).
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Right on.
 
Line 1 is the simple name that I like. There's nothing to explain. You're at Union? You're either headed towards Downsview or Finch, which is what the trains say on the front as they arrive.
 
junctionist said:
Line 1 is the simple name that I like. There's nothing to explain. You're at Union? You're either headed towards Downsview or Finch, which is what the trains say on the front as they arrive.
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Yep. They should just get rid of the names all together to avoid any confusion. It works fine in New York and Berlin.
 
gweed123 said:
To be honest, I prefer Yonge-University to Yonge-Spadina. The connection of multiple universities along the line is part of it, but also to avoid the potential naming conflict with the Spadina Streetcar ROW, which is only going to grow in importance as the high density development of the CBD stretches further west. Obviously the co-naming isn't critical, but it could potentially confuse some tourists, especially considering the Spadina Streetcar and the Spadina Subway only connect two points at the very ends of the streetcar route, and run parallel to eachother through downtown several blocks apart.

I can just imagine a tourist at Queen & John asking somebody "where is the Spadina line?", and a fair amount of confusion resulting. Or the tourist mistakenly thinking that the Spadina Subway actually runs underneath Spadina (how silly of them). At least with University, it's reflective of the street name of the section of the line that most tourists will be using (in downtown).
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Very good point; I did not think of this aspect before, but it makes a lot of sense. Name "Spadina" should be reserved for the Spadina Avenue and its streetcar line.
 
gweed123 said:
To be honest, I prefer Yonge-University to Yonge-Spadina. The connection of multiple universities along the line is part of it, but also to avoid the potential naming conflict with the Spadina Streetcar ROW, which is only going to grow in importance as the high density development of the CBD stretches further west. Obviously the co-naming isn't critical, but it could potentially confuse some tourists, especially considering the Spadina Streetcar and the Spadina Subway only connect two points at the very ends of the streetcar route, and run parallel to eachother through downtown several blocks apart.

I can just imagine a tourist at Queen & John asking somebody "where is the Spadina line?", and a fair amount of confusion resulting. Or the tourist mistakenly thinking that the Spadina Subway actually runs underneath Spadina (how silly of them). At least with University, it's reflective of the street name of the section of the line that most tourists will be using (in downtown).
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Excellent points. And I guess you're right in that we already have a 'Spadina Line'...the 512. I wouldn't call it rapid transit, but it's still a railed transit line, and ppl pretty much call it Spadina. I dunno why I didn't consider that. Obviously not the right thread for it, but on the topic of making things easier for tourists, perhaps we should get rid of the three digit 500 series numbers. Maybe move on to letters for the streetcar system.
 
44 North said:
Excellent points. And I guess you're right in that we already have a 'Spadina Line'...the 512. I wouldn't call it rapid transit, but it's still a railed transit line, and ppl pretty much call it Spadina. I dunno why I didn't consider that. Obviously not the right thread for it, but on the topic of making things easier for tourists, perhaps we should get rid of the three digit 500 series numbers. Maybe move on to letters for the streetcar system.
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Uhhh... it's 510 Spadina. 512 is for St. Clair.
 
another reason we should get rid of the 500-series numbering!
i actually saw that mistake, meant to fix it, but then forgot. but it is a weird system for naming routes.
 
44 North said:
another reason we should get rid of the 500-series numbering!
i actually saw that mistake, meant to fix it, but then forgot. but it is a weird system for naming routes.
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All routes have both a name and number. 2 - Bloor-Danforth; 22 - Coxwell; 502 - Downtowner. What range of numbers would you use then?
 
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