I should know this stuff...

[phonogfp]

This reminds me of a conversation I had with another collector many years ago about Aeolian-Vocalion. I've never heard anyone pronounce this other than to rhyme with "scallion." But I can't help but wonder if the originators intended the brand to be pronounced "vocal - lion." You know; as in "Voice of a Lion?" My friend just laughed it off, but I'd still be interested in seeing some original literature that relates to the brand's pronunciation.

The same holds true for "Viva-Tonal." I pronounce it "Veeva," but who knows for sure? You say "tomato" and I say "tomahto..."

George P.

[Paal1994]

I've always said "Veeva".

Paal.

[Henry]

The term comes from Latin, so it is properly pronounced 'veeva', like the 'i' in 'Regina'. you wouldn't rhyme 'Regina' with 'vagina', at least the colloquial pronunciation. In Latin, it would be pronounced 'vageena' with a hard 'g'.

So if the "V" is pronounced as a "W", then it wouldn't be 'vageena' either. It would be 'wageena'.

J/k, I agree with Veeva-tonal.

The rules for Latin pronunciation that I and many others learned in school are merely (arbitrary) conventions adopted centuries after the fact. There is an interesting scene in the movie "Goodby, Mr. Chips" where the title character protests against the adoption of these rules, whereby the name "Cicero" is pronounced "Kick-a-ro," and "Veni, vidi, vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered") is pronounced "Waynee, weedy, wicky." Obviously, there is no living memory of classical Latin pronunciation, even if it were consistent from region to region (think of all the varieties of accent we hear in spoken English), and different language cultures pronounce it differently today. An example would be so-called "Church Latin," which is pronounced as if it were Italian. By that convention, "Cicero" would presumably be pronounced "Chichero." Such utterances sound comical to speakers of English, but there is no system that I know of by which Latin can be pronounced today that completely avoids them.

Having said all that, I've always pronounced it "Veeva-tonal."