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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?

tchrist
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Widor
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2 Answers2

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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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    OED has /ˈvaɪsiː ˈvɜːsə/ [different stress from OALD] which I have never heard. I've always heard (and used) a schwa where vice has two syllables: /vaɪsə/. And I would have upvoted @Arch's answer because of that, but he deleted it. – Andrew Leach Jan 15 '13 at 12:38
  • I think the question is actually, "So should vice versa be pronounced true to the original?" – Kris Jan 15 '13 at 12:42
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    @Kris: I hope not, since there really is no 'original' pronunciation. Ciceronian? Silver Age? Mediaeval? Papal? – Tim Lymington Jan 15 '13 at 12:45
  • @TimLymington Which makes the assumption "The original would be something like VEE-cay VER-sa", and thence the very question, what? – Kris Jan 15 '13 at 12:48
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    @Kris No, the original would be WEE-kay WER-sa, which I certainly wouldn't advocate. – Andrew Leach Jan 15 '13 at 13:45
  • I (an Irish English speaker) actually use both of the two listed here as the American pronunciation (that is, the two that sound the r as indeed some British accents do as well). I've heard both so often that neither have completely dominated my own speech. I have noticed I tend more to /ˌvaɪsi/ when speaking myself, more to /ˌvaɪs/ when reading aloud, so the latter is probably a matter of my applying the more common spelling-to-pronunciation rules while reading (akin to how I'll read out some words plain wrong and then correct myself). – Jon Hanna Jan 15 '13 at 13:46
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    @Kris: Erroneous (drumroll). Specifically, the belief that an English phrase 'should' be pronounced as it would be if in the original language ignores the facts of Anglicization and pronunciation shifts; this particular phrase also has two pecularities, namely that no Latin-speaker would use those two words to mean what the English phrase means, and that Latin pronunciation changed markedly over the period when the phrase was (allegedly) coined. So yes, 'true to the original' is IMO meaningless, but '"correct"' is not, so long as the inverted commas are retained. – Tim Lymington Jan 15 '13 at 18:33
  • @TimLymington "As if it would be" sounds oddly German, and is certainly not something I can generate. For me, it has to be "as it if were", and would certainly be marked wrong if it were any other way on this side of Atlantis. – tchrist Jan 16 '13 at 00:11
  • @TimLymington You've totally overlooked the quote marks. I was quoting (questioning) the OP ('s assertion). Just check out the question once. – Kris Jan 16 '13 at 06:07
  • @Kris: yes, the error was OPs not yours. I wonder why you assume I thought otherwise, let alone "totally overlooked" anything. – Tim Lymington Jan 16 '13 at 11:14
  • @TimLymington I’m scambling/swapping words every which way lately. Seems to be too much hacking and too little sleep. Or early-onset Alzheimer’s. – tchrist Jan 16 '13 at 11:17
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In the middle of the twentieth century, a working class Australian would have pronounced it vicky verser because that would show (proudly) that he knew no Latin and had little regard for the snobs who did.

In fact, using the expression at all would have been a reluctant concession to polite society. The preferred form amongst his workmates would have been and arse about face.

Fortiter
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