Toronto – The capital and largest city of Ontario, Canada, in the southern part of the province on Lake Ontario.
- [tə-ˈrän-(ˌ)tō, -ˈrän-tə] — Merriam-Webster
- [tuh-ron-toh] — Reference.com
- [təˈrän(t)ō] — Oxford Dictionaries
Context: The 2012 Oscar winning movie “Argo”. Decades ago, when the Iranian revolution was reaching a boiling point and the American embassy in Tehran was invaded, six Americans escaped and found shelter at the Canadian ambassy. To get out of Iran more or less safely they received new identities as Canadian teachers. At this point, they were told they would be asked where they came from, at the airport, and were warned that Torontonians don’t pronounce the name of their city the same way most English speaking people do.
I've searched several dictionaries and have only found the usual pronunciation.
Best Answer
When I was living in Calgary, Alberta, in the early 1970s, a student fresh from Toronto (where she had grown up) enrolled in our high school—and I would swear that she pronounced Toronto in two syllables: ˈträn-ə.
Admittedly (1) the pronunciation may have changed or (2) our transfer student may have had an idiosyncratic pronunciation or (3) even though I would swear to the accuracy of the memory, I may not be remembering it correctly.
I do know that the nasal tone with which she pronounced Toronto was a source of great mirth to the chirpy native Calgarians.