[RD] Daily Graphs and Charts

[sophie]

Toe is toe. As in, the things on your feet. Oh is what my wife says when we're getting intimate or what I say when she's not into it. (Full disclosure: I do not have a wife)

I can't figure out how you pronounce it, because I'm not familiar with that system. I would guess most people aren't, but maybe I'm wrong?

toe and oh are the same sound: /oʊ/ (/əʊ/ in British English). Hence why I'm confused by the distinction.

tɹɑ:n.oʊ

t as in stop (i.e. not aspirated like it is in type or saint)
ɹ as in rope
ɑ: as in stop (vowel is double length)
n as in nose
oʊ as in toe

IPA is not difficult and people should learn it; it would make these "how do you pronounce x" much easier. That chart is basically unusable for any speaker of British English or a non-native speaker living outside of USA/Canada.

 

[Hygro]

dude im not gonna learn it

 

[Timsup2nothin]

We pronounce every vowel and consonant.

Most. Your place is an exception.

 

[JohannaK]

Since a distinction has to be made between "toe"'s and "oh"'s vowel sound for that chart to make sense, I assume "oh" means that there is no diphthong.

 

[Joecoolyo]

IPA is not difficult and people should learn it; it would make these "how do you pronounce x" much easier. That chart is basically unusable for any speaker of British English or a non-native speaker living outside of USA/Canada.

dude im not gonna learn it

It's one of those things I've always been meaning to learn but never get around to doing so.

I also have no idea where to start.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Since a distinction has to be made between "toe"'s and "oh"'s vowel sound for that chart to make sense, I assume "oh" means that there is no diphthong.

I assumed the "oh" meant the T was not pronounced. I've certainly heard it said that way enough...by Canadian sportscasters.

 

[sophie]

Since a distinction has to be made between "toe"'s and "oh"'s vowel sound for that chart to make sense, I assume "oh" means that there is no diphthong.

I assumed the "oh" meant the T was not pronounced. I've certainly heard it said that way enough...by Canadian sportscasters.

The problem is that when the whole point is asking someone what sounds they make, the main thing you want to strive for is consistency. As Lohren "sen of a gen" swald demonstrates, different people pronounce words differently, which is why you generally try to avoid using real words in phonetic spellings. The first time I looked at that graphic I pronounced the "toe" as a diphthong /oe/ (which sounds closest to "toy" in English I guess) in my head and got really really confused for a second there.

 

[Arakhor]

That chart is basically unusable for any speaker of British English or a non-native speaker living outside of USA/Canada.

I'm not sure why you'd say that, given that we say "toe" and "oh" with long rhyming Os in the UK as well. My main issue is that I would say "Tor" at the start, rather than any variation of "toe".

 

[warpus]

toe and oh are the same sound: /oʊ/ (/əʊ/ in British English). Hence why I'm confused by the distinction.

tɹɑ:n.oʊ

t as in stop (i.e. not aspirated like it is in type or saint)
ɹ as in rope
ɑ: as in stop (vowel is double length)
n as in nose
oʊ as in toe

IPA is not difficult and people should learn it; it would make these "how do you pronounce x" much easier. That chart is basically unusable for any speaker of British English or a non-native speaker living outside of USA/Canada.

Yeah, the "toe" sound and the "oh" sound are the same, except for Toe has a T in front. That's what the graphic I posted initially is implying.

IPA is cool and all, but nobody knows it. If more people did, I'd be all on board, but virtually nobody does, so graphics such as these, targeted as a non-academic crowd, is usually going to denote pronunciation in an informal way such as this.

I think the graphic was targeted at Torontonians and maybe Ontarians anyway, so there's little confusion as to what each part of the graphic means, for most locals of Toronto anyway.

My main issue is that I would say "Tor" at the start, rather than any variation of "toe".

That's a dig at American sportscasters/media personalities mainly, they for one reason or another overenunciate Toronto and you end up with Toe-Ron-Toh aka nails running down a chalk board for any Toronto native.

 

[Camikaze]

IPA is not difficult and people should learn it; it would make these "how do you pronounce x" much easier.

We should probably speak Esperanto too, but in the meantime I'll understand things better if said in English.

 

[Arwon]

How do you pronounce "Toronto" ?

Locals who live in Toronto that I know and most people in the area pronounce it like this: "Tronno/Tronna", sort of in between the 3rd and 4th panel

tuh-RON-toe or tuh-RON-oh depending on speed of speech.

But my RON sounds different to Canadian obviously - wikipedia tells me it's open-mid back rounded, rather than open back rounded so the mouth is a little less open, the tongue a little higher than for yours. Apparently it's more like the vowel in Newfoundland accent "but".

I wonder how people in Toronto pronounce it.

Also I know IPA but I'm not going to use it in a casual conversation about one word.

 

[Lohrenswald]

http://vocaroo.com/i/s15uEDetAxpF

 

[Arakhor]

How charmingly Northern European, Lohren.

Here's my effort.

 

[warpus]

Lohernswald you sound Japanese to me, but I haven't had my morning coffee yet

Here's a perfect pronunciation of Toronto, the way locals say it anyway:


Link to video.

No idea who she is, but all the other "how to pronounce Toronto" videos I found on youtube were just way off, this one is very very close, maybe even spot on. It can just get even less enunciatory, if that's a word, but that's pretty much it

 

[Lohrenswald]

As Lohren "sen of a gen" swald demonstrates, different people pronounce words differently

I missed this remark

you're one cheeky one, aren't you

also you're changing your description of how you percieved it

Lohernswald you sound Japanese to me, but I haven't had my morning coffee yet

lol

It's mostly because Toronto is such a silly word

 

[madviking]

Lohernswald you sound Japanese to me, but I haven't had my morning coffee yet

Here's a perfect pronunciation of Toronto, the way locals say it anyway:


Link to video.

No idea who she is, but all the other "how to pronounce Toronto" videos I found on youtube were just way off, this one is very very close, maybe even spot on. It can just get even less enunciatory, if that's a word, but that's pretty much it

and lena dunham isn't even canadian!

my try

 

[gay_Aleks]

Tu-want-uh.

 

[Joecoolyo]

my try

Can't get vocaroo to work, but you basically say it the way I say it.

Though I put more emphasis on the second T.

 

[Lohrenswald]

As far as I could gather, madviking refuses to acknowledge the existence of the second t at all

 

[sophie]

As far as I could gather, madviking refuses to acknowledge the existence of the second t at all

That's how I pronounce it too.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0bYHKpoXua6