Monday, March 2, 2015

pronunciation - How should an English speaker pronounce "vice versa"?



When using vice versa in spoken English, I tend to just completely Anglicise it and pronounce it vise VER-ser, with only one syllable in vice.



The original would be something like VEE-cay VER-sa, but I often hear people use a hybrid pronunciation more like VY-ser VER-ser, with two syllables in each word.




Which is the "correct" way to say it?



French loan phrases seem to stay fairly true to the original pronunciation, e.g. déjà vu doesn't become dedger-view and je ne sais quoi isn't juh nee sayz kwoy.
So should vice versa be pronounced true to the original?


Answer



Vice versa should be pronounced as /ˌvaɪs ˈvɜːsə/ or /ˌvaɪsi ˈvɜːsə/ in British English and /ˌvaɪs ˈvɜːrsə/ or /ˌvaɪsi ˈvɜːrsə/ in American English.


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