[nfitz]

I guess if enough uneducated people pronounce something incorrectly it can eventually mangle it's way into a Canadian dictionary eh?

That's how the dictionary works; though I don't know what education has to do with it; that seems rather classist.

If this didn't happen with language, we'd all be speaking Indo-European.

 

[Dan416]

That's how the dictionary works; though I don't know what education has to do with it; that seems rather classist.

If this didn't happen with language, we'd all be speaking Indo-European.

Education insofar as having the ability to read.

 

[SlickFranky]

Apparently Toronto is much more obsessed with regional dialects and pronunciations than it is with diversity.

I do love reading these conversations though, especially since English is such a phonetically inconsistent written language.

 

[Dan416]

Apparently Toronto is much more obsessed with regional dialects and pronunciations than it is with diversity.

I do love reading these conversations though, especially since English is such a phonetically inconsistent written language.

I'm sorry for throwing things off-topic. I actually thought a mod would have split off the Toronto accent talk from the Toronto diversity talk into its own thread by now...

 

[dahusbandofbath]

You didn't mention butter tarts?

I've been thinking of things all day that I should have mentioned!

 

[adma]

ROO vs GTA is invalid. Like saying Woodbridge gino/a talk is the same as Oshawa talk.

You gotta remember: Woodabridge has three syllables...

 

[MisterF]

As for how much stock I put in "one character", it's not ONE CHARACTER. It's EVERY CHARACTER throughout every single series and episode of STAR TREK, ever! And I've watched every episode! Same goes for nearly every sci fi series I've ever watched. I was probably first exposed to the "leftenant" pronunciation watching CBC! That said, if I'm watching the BBC Horatio Hornblower series on TVO, I expect them to say "leftenant" because it sounds correct with a British accent. I've never said "leftenant" was wrong. I just think it sounds wrong with a Canadian accent. And yes, that's a subjective opinion.

It surprises you that characters on an American TV show pronounce words the American way? You base your pronunciation of the English language on Star Trek?

Pronouncing lieutenant the Canadian way with a Canadian accent sounds perfectly normal to me.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Further to my post regarding tolerance of diversity and segregation not being mutually exculsive you can read some interesting work by the Nobel prize winning economist Thomas Schelling (most noted for his contributions to game theory). Schelling showed that a randomly diverse population will segregate in as little as two iterations if the only criteria is that an individual becomes dissatisfied when in the minority. This simple model has obvious implications for cities and how rapidly demographic patterns change. Because the average person moves several times in a life-time the implication is that a randomly diverse city can become a segregated diverse city in one human life span. So for instance a city that is randomly french and english speaking could become completely segregated into english and french enclaved whithin one human life-span simply if english and french speakers prefer living in areas where more people speak their language, even if they have no overtly negatve feelings about those who speak the other language.

 

[Dan416]

It surprises you that characters on an American TV show pronounce words the American way? You base your pronunciation of the English language on Star Trek?

Pronouncing lieutenant the Canadian way with a Canadian accent sounds perfectly normal to me.

Why would it surprise me? I never said that. Don't put words in my mouth. What surprised me was CBC using the British pronunciation of lieutenant. On the pronunciation of the word lieutenant, yes I do base my pronunciation on Star Trek. 500+ episodes can't be wrong! That and all my friends whenever we would say lieutenant the American way because that's how we learned the word, through Star Trek, not through school or any other way.

I do not consider "leftenant" to be the Canadian way when I was never taught that ever. I'll accept it as a British pronunciation that Canadians like to use to distinguish themselves from Americans and emulate the British, but nothing more (similar to the way some Canadians like to use the -ise suffix instead of -ize suffix, or programme instead of program)

 

[nfitz]

On the pronunciation of the word lieutenant, yes I do base my pronunciation on Star Trek. 500+ episodes can't be wrong!

OMG ... R U 4 real?

How can we take someone seriously on anything, if they say we should base our pronunciation on Hollywood.

I watched a lot of Dukes of Hazard in my day (what can I say, Star Trek wasn't in production) ... should I say Ve-HI-cle ?

 

[EnviroTO]

Roscoe PEEEE Coltraine. Gee-gea-geuh.

 

[Mystic Point]

Given the interest in accents and Toronto dialect etc, I opened a thread on the topic.

 

[Tewder]

I do not consider "leftenant" to be the Canadian way when I was never taught that ever. I'll accept it as a British pronunciation that Canadians like to use to distinguish themselves from Americans and emulate the British, but nothing more (similar to the way some Canadians like to use the -ise suffix instead of -ize suffix, or programme instead of program)

So it's an affectation then? Come on, Ontario was a colony of England and predominantly populated by the British right up until fairly recently, historically speaking. Next you're going to tell us that the use of French in Quebec is an affectation and that they should all be using Americanized English.

 

[nfitz]

Next you're going to tell us that the use of French in Quebec is an affectation and that they should all be using Americanized English.

Like Jean-Luc Picard?

 

[urbandreamer]

I'd reckon that probably the folks who insist on the British pronunciation in Ontario are majority British Isles in origin. The Mennonites of Waterloo/Perth/Grey/Bruce counties have a distinctly different way of pronouncing words, clearly influenced by their German/Pennsylvania Dutch background--fairly similar to the Yiddish accent/influence in many Jewish folks in the GTA.

I wonder how the accent will change going forward? I know a high school English teacher--Iranian background--whose English I can hardly understand! I sometimes wonder how these people got these jobs...!