How do Canadians pronounce Calgary?

[floobie]

I grew up speaking German, despite being born in Calgary. And, in German, if there's a letter in a word, you fucking pronounce it! None of this sloppy English bullshit with random "e"s slapped at the end of every other word, or full on British style where syllables are just totally omitted (like Worcestershire... absolutely idiotic). And how in the fuck is colonel pronounced kernel?! Or lieutenant pronounced "left-hannent". Blargh!

Cal-gar-ee.

If you disagree with me, you're wrong!

/flobbie's rant of the day

[Elbownian]

Another of freeweed's glottal-stoppers here, though I probably do pronounce the second 'a' somewhat more than others - more of a cal-guh-ree sound. Moved here from Edmonton when I was 7, which may explain where that comes from.

But if you want to go back to the correct pronunciation for the language the name was drawn from, you have to revert all the way to:

Cal-gar-ray

Speaking of which, anyone else up for petitioning to a return to original Gaelic, or is Calgarraidh just too damned hard to spell and pronounce?

[Doug]

Originally Posted by YYCguys

You can clearly hear the 3 syllable pronunciation of Calgary in this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/WA5VnKimBRs?rel=0

I LOVED the "Hello Calgary" spots. Wish they would bring them back!

THe old 2&7 ad was adapted from a similar "Hello Rochester" jingle. It had to use three syllables to make it work. Anyone who watched Ottawa TV in the early 80s would likely remember.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by floobie

I grew up speaking German, despite being born in Calgary. And, in German, if there's a letter in a word, you fucking pronounce it! None of this sloppy English bullshit with random "e"s slapped at the end of every other word, or full on British style where syllables are just totally omitted (like Worcestershire... absolutely idiotic). And how in the fuck is colonel pronounced kernel?! Or lieutenant pronounced "left-hannent". Blargh!

Cal-gar-ee.

If you disagree with me, you're wrong!

/flobbie's rant of the day

There's that German warmth we all know and love.

Born and raised, always have pronounced in "Cal-gree".

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by floobie

I grew up speaking German, despite being born in Calgary. And, in German, if there's a letter in a word, you fucking pronounce it! None of this sloppy English bullshit with random "e"s slapped at the end of every other word, or full on British style where syllables are just totally omitted (like Worcestershire... absolutely idiotic). And how in the fuck is colonel pronounced kernel?! Or lieutenant pronounced "left-hannent". Blargh!

Cal-gar-ee.

If you disagree with me, you're wrong!

/flobbie's rant of the day

Those aren't German words.
Thanks.

[BIMBAM]

Originally Posted by ByeByeBaby

The pronunciation of Calgary is in the Wikipedia list of shibboleths. Tronna is the other classic one. I was at a meetup last week, and it was pretty obvious to me who the newcomers were and who the natives (or long-term residents, I was actually the only born and raised one) were.

That, and mun-tree-ALL (local), vs. MON-trey-all (usually Americans).

I always pronounced cal-guh-ree, but I'm an easterner.

[floobie]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

There's that German warmth we all know and love.

Born and raised, always have pronounced in "Cal-gree".

Zee scheduled fun time shall commence now!

SCHNELL!!!

[floobie]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

Those aren't German words.
Thanks.

Same alphabet, though. I've just always appreciated how phonetic German is compared to English. Rules are established, and they're always followed. Order! Discipline!

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

Those aren't German words.
Thanks.

No - they're Scottish.

[fusili]

I pronounce it Cal 'guh' ree, with the "guh" being pretty short and not pronounced heavily. I agree with freeweed on this, it is like 2.5 syllables.

If you want to know if someone is from Calgary (born and raised), as them how to pronounce Waiparous or T'suu T'ina.

[fusili]

Originally Posted by floobie

I grew up speaking German, despite being born in Calgary. And, in German, if there's a letter in a word, you fucking pronounce it! None of this sloppy English bullshit with random "e"s slapped at the end of every other word, or full on British style where syllables are just totally omitted (like Worcestershire... absolutely idiotic). And how in the fuck is colonel pronounced kernel?! Or lieutenant pronounced "left-hannent". Blargh!

Cal-gar-ee.

If you disagree with me, you're wrong!

/flobbie's rant of the day

Spanish is the same. You pronounce every damn syllable and strongly. There are a few silent letters, usually "h"s, but other than that, everything is pronounced.

The problem with English is that is has a long and complicated history of languages mixing. There was an early Gallic language spoken (at least I think). Then the Roman conquest added a bunch of words and grammar. Then there was the Anglo-Saxon influence (from the Angle and Saxon invaders from Germany), which I believe is the root of most grammar and syntax, but a lot of Gallic and Latin words were kept. For many words in English, there is both a German-root word and Latin-root word: Torture (German) and Rendition (Latin), Freedom (German) and Liberty (Latin) are some examples.

When the Normans conquered it, a bunch of French was included in the language, mostly to do with administration and military (army, march, marquis). Then, because of the later English empire, a bunch of other words and phrases became included, many from India.

The problem with all of this is that effectively 4 different language groups (Gallic, Latin, French and German) have all influenced English in one way or another. That is why there are no rules that make any sense, and pronunciation is so difficult.

[jsbertram]

Does anyone know if some jokester parents have named their sons Cal and Gary?

"Hi I'm Cal, this is Gary; We're from Calgary"

Bonus points if they have a sister Alberta
(or a brother Albert)


I went to school with a girl named "neetee" (not that spelling) whose given name was actually Anita. Family name Barbour.

Anita Barbour
(i need a barber)

Some parents should re-think that cute name for their kids when they're born.

[trueviking]

the second a in calgary is silent just like the second t in toronto.

east of winnipeg people use the cal-garry pronounciation.

[gantenbein]

Originally Posted by fusili

The problem with all of this is that effectively 4 different language groups (Gallic, Latin, French and German) have all influenced English in one way or another. That is why there are no rules that make any sense, and pronunciation is so difficult.

Add to this the decentralisation of native speakers across many sovereign political jurisdictions and and you see why we've never got a proper spelling reform (i.e. one where orthography would actually reflect pronunciation) off the ground.

[Doug]

Have always said Cal-gree. Moved there when I was 5. Trueviking is right: most Westerners say Cal-gree, most others say Cal-gary.

[patm]

I've lived in Calgary for 20 out of the almost 23 years I've been alive and I'm pretty sure I pronounce it just like everyone else here does but if I were to type it out phonetically I'd go with CAL-Ga-REE with a very quick "ah" after the G that is almost non-existent.

But I like I said I've lived here for basically my whole life and I'm sure I say it the same way everyone else says it... I think lol.

I'm more shocked that outsiders care enough about Calgary to argue about its pronunciation lol. Especially outside of Calgary

[Dado]

Originally Posted by fusili

I pronounce it Cal 'guh' ree, with the "guh" being pretty short and not pronounced heavily. I agree with freeweed on this, it is like 2.5 syllables.

Yep, that's how I pronounce Calgary and my guess is that's how most urban English Central Canadians would pronounce it too, with varying degrees of emphasis on the "guh" (go into rural Ontario or the Maritimes and Lord knows what you'd get). The only people I heard pronouncing it as "Cal-gair-ee" when I was there seemed to be from around Edmonton.

Btw, is the local pronunciation "cal-gree" or "calg-ree"? Another possible pronunciation would be "calg'er-ee" and I'm sure I've heard this before (I may have done it myself - that tends to be how I "read" the word, so if I'm reading aloud I could see myself pronouncing it this way even if in conversation I would pronounce it differently) - in fact, it would tend to produce a glottal stop after the 'g'.

[Dado]

Originally Posted by floobie

I grew up speaking German, despite being born in Calgary. And, in German, if there's a letter in a word, you fucking pronounce it! None of this sloppy English bullshit with random "e"s slapped at the end of every other word, or full on British style where syllables are just totally omitted (like Worcestershire... absolutely idiotic). And how in the fuck is colonel pronounced kernel?!

The English pronunciation came from the Spanish "coronel" whereas the spelling was later standardized on the French "colonel". Blame the French.

Or lieutenant pronounced "left-hannent".

This probably has similarly confused origins dating back to Norman times when "luef" may well have been the spelling and when the later French spelling of "lieu" appeared it would often have been spelled as "liev" given the interchangeability of 'u' and 'v'. Throw in a bit of a notion of a "left hand man" and there you have your pronunciation-spelling mismatch.

Confusing matters further still is the fact that in the Royal Navy the pronunciation is "le-tenant". Note also that the American "loo-tenant" is incorrect as well: on a purely phonetic basis it would be "lee'euh-ten'an[t]" (French-derived rules) or "lee'oo-ten'ant" (English-derived rules).


One of English's biggest problems in terms of spelling is the fact that when we adopt foreign loanwords we just take the word in as it is spelled in whatever language it came from (typically knocking out anything vaguely resembling an accent, whether it is or not) rather than respelling it to match English rules. Sometimes we try to retain the original pronunciation, sometimes we pronounce it according to English rules (such as they are) and sometimes it just ends up an abomination following no particular rules at all.

[floobie]

Fusili, Dado, I've learned something today. Thank you! (Note: Looking through the list of smilies, I couldn't find one that quite captured the emotion I was intending. Then I saw a borg one and just used that instead, because I'm a gigantic nerd.)

[Elbownian]

Seems fitting to me. I think we've identified English as the Borg of languages today