Ookwemin Minising

Developer: Waterfront Toronto, CreateTO
  
Address: Villiers St, Toronto
Category: Residential (Affordable Rental, Market-Rate Rental), Commercial, Institutional, Public Space / Park
Status: Pre-ConstructionCompletion: TBD
Height: ? ft / ? mStoreys: ? storeys
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Toronto Ookwemin Minising | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

Parkdalian said:
I think defining what is "pronounceable" to an English language speaker is a pretty challenging thing to define. English spelling is not consistent. And I think that "Anglicizing" something ... is the opposite point of Reconciliation. Also, who determines if an English speaker is "able to say that word"? There are many English speakers on this forum who say that they can pronounce the word as is.

All of this to say that while I think that the wider public should be able to pronounce new names, there is no clear criteria for what is or isn't "pronounceable." That means that particular criterion shouldn't have veto power over other criteria. As @Natika33 points out, I'm sure the people choosing the name put a lot of thought into the things that you seem to feel they have completely ignored.
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Ookwemin Minising is a perfectly fine name- but to Northern Light's point, most people are going to garble and mispronounce it because it is not spelled phonetically in the Latin alphabet. It is very likely that most people will mispronounce it as "OOK-whemmin" .

If the Ojibway word is pronounced "Oh-KWAY-min", why not just spell it "Okwaymin", or something else that will prompt the largest number of people to actually pronounce the Ojibway word correctly?

And if the phonetic pronunciation or understanding of the name by non-indigenous people is a minor issue, or appealing to their understanding and/or pronunciation of the name is not important, then why even bother spelling in out in the Latin alphabet to begin with?
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
...I think this has always been about who is inconveniencing who with that name here. And that's pretty sad, IMO.
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This is about foisting a name on the majority. Are we going to have catchy indigenous phrase-names henceforth for new parkland to assuage the guilt of the settler population ? I'm amused when people believe this line of questioning to be colonial/settler/racist. As an aside , I'm proud of my Cree/Inuit forebears as I am proud of my European forebears. Enough said.
 
old boy said:
This is about foisting a name on the majority. Are we going to have catchy indigenous phrase-names henceforth for new parkland to assuage the guilt of the settler population ? I'm amused when people believe this line of questioning to be colonial/settler/racist. As an aside , I'm proud of my Cree/Inuit forebears as I am proud of my European forebears. Enough said.
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Murray Sinclair passed away this morning at age 73. A remarkable man who was most influential in delivering the Truth and Reconciliation document.
 
old boy said:
This is about foisting a name on the majority. Are we going to have catchy indigenous phrase-names henceforth for new parkland to assuage the guilt of the settler population ? I'm amused when people believe this line of questioning to be colonial/settler/racist. As an aside , I'm proud of my Cree/Inuit forebears as I am proud of my European forebears. Enough said.
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I think it's a nice trend. We have plenty of Colonel Sam Smith, Garrison Common, Coronation, etc. Why not some variety?
 
old boy said:
This is about foisting a name on the majority. Are we going to have catchy indigenous phrase-names henceforth for new parkland to assuage the guilt of the settler population ? I'm amused when people believe this line of questioning to be colonial/settler/racist. As an aside , I'm proud of my Cree/Inuit forebears as I am proud of my European forebears. Enough said.
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A majority of what exactly?
 
The traffic signals at Old Cherry St and Commissioners St were disabled early this morning, then removed at some point during the day. It was an entirely uncontrolled intersection as of around 5:30 pm earlier this evening. I assume a more permanent installation will be going in soon? I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning...

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UPDATE (7:45 am)

No traffic lights, but new poles are being driven into the ground at the intersection.

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evandyk said:
I think it's a nice trend. We have plenty of Colonel Sam Smith, Garrison Common, Coronation, etc. Why not some variety?
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I don't have a problem with first nations names, they are common enough. Ideally they are rendered phonetically intelligible to most locals. And expect shortening if your name is 6+ syllibles. Penetanguishene (5 syllables) is shortened by some locals to Penetang, In this case, I can see Okwemin sticking. We don't call Etobicoke wadoopikaang, which is what the name is based on.
 
It is also just the current zeitgeist to shoe-horn first nations considerations or a climate change angle onto as many debates as can be. I am not saying that is wrong necessarily (though the application at the degree can often be debated). In 20 years it will likely switch to something else.
 
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