It is not unusual for names to spread from place to place, and Toronto is no exception. The name reached its present location -- and spelling -- after journeys both linguistic and geographical in nature. Linguistically, it originated as the Mohawk phrase tkaronto, later modified by French explorers and map makers. Geographically, it moved 125 kilometres south from The Narrows, where today's Lake Simcoe empties into Lake Couchiching at the city of Orillia.
Tkaronto means "where there are trees standing in the water", according to several Mohawk speakers and aboriginal language expert John Steckley. Mohawks used the phrase to describe The Narrows, where Hurons and other natives drove stakes into the water to create fish weirs. In 1615, Samuel de Champlain described these structures as blocking the channels, with a few openings left for catching fish in nets. Radiocarbon dating of surviving stakes reveals that the weirs at The Narrows were in use more than 4,000 years ago.
Read Full Article »