"Do you think I should take a class
To lose my southern accent?
Did I make me up?
Or make a face 'til it stuck?
I do the best imitation of myself!"
Ben Folds Five
The Best Imitation Of Myself
To think, I have been saying it wrong all this time!
A very good friend of mine who shall remain nameless – that is unless they care to admit to it, I know that they are a regular reader of my blog – informs me that I have been saying it wrong all this time. Imagine that!
Apparently, all those letters are not there to be pronounced. It isn't really a surprise. I was told this for the first time about a couple years ago – perhaps more. "Do you know you say that name wrong?" was the way I learned that I talked funny. (Or words to that affect.)
Apparently it isn't pronounced [tor ON toe], pronouncing all the words as one would in, say Denver, or Seattle. It is more like [tuh RON uh] slurring the division between syllables in much the same way that one does when properly saying Louisville [LOU uh vull] or New Orleans [N' AWE luhns]. It puts me in mind of the time the Spanish National Soccer team came to play an exhibition game against the team at UCF. They were so excited to learn that the town nearest the university (this was long before Orlando had grown out to meet the college) was named the same as their beloved home: Oviedo. That was until they heard the natives murder it: [uh VEE duhr]. It also reminds me of the line from My Fair Lady: "The French don't care what you do, actually, as long as you pronounce it properly.
I am fixated on how to say it, because I will be flying out to Toronto on business this weekend. It is supposed to be lovely this weekend. Well, at least it is here in Colorado.
So wherever you are today, I hope you at least can pronounce it properly!
Don Bergquist – March 28, 2011 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA
2 comments:
I admit it, I'm the culprit. If you don't remember how to say Toronto like a Canadian, you could always say "this lovely city". But then, given that it's Toronto which I don't think is lovely, you will probably be given funny looks.
I hope your visit to Tim's goes well!
Cathy W
Cathy,
I was going to let you off the hook and not make you feel bad about correcting me, but I am definitely not going to be calling this a beautiful city. Not today at least.
The weather is a mess… The news has just shown a car that somehow flipped on the expressway. There was no explanation of HOW this happened; it is sitting in the middle of the highway on its roof. Strange!
Looking out my window, the 401 is a parking lot! Yeah! At least I have only got a couple miles to go to get to the client today.
Normally, I do think torONuh is a lovely city. Of the major cities I have been to it is by far the cleanest! But not this morning; it is a mess out there.
Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog, Cathy!
Don
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