Voila

That was a surprise to me, but I checked it also at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/voila

It seems I've been pronouncing it incorrectly all my life, by using a short "a" sound. Perhaps that the Anglicized pronunciation of the original French, as I have never heard it with a long "a" sound. Until today that is.

Did the thefreedictionary.com steal ahdictionary.com's sound sample, or the other way around?   They're identical.

I'm not sure you're wrong, Heimhenge.   Merriam-Webster's sample pronounciation is more in line with what I'm used to hearing and saying - ending in a short "a".   http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voila

Dictionary.com's sound  sample also uses the short "a" sound but the pronounciation guide lists both:

([vwah-lah; Fr. vwa-la] - does this mean that the long "a" pronounciation is French and the short "a" pronounciation is the anglicized version?

Wictionary.com lists the long "a" as  the UK pronounciation and the short "a" as the US pronounciation.   Its sound sample uses the short "a" sound.

In a quick Google research, I found 5 hits that gave the pronunciation with a short "a" and no hits with the long "a."   I also found some sites that claim to give a French pronunciation and the only difference is that they have the accent on the first syllable rather than the last.   I think the references above are just wrong, and I agree with telemath that the two incorrect sound samples are identical.

That robo-voice pronunciation is simply WRONG. I wouldn't give it a second thought. The sounds don't even match the phonetic transcription given in these dictionaries. (You can see that the two vowels in the two syllables are identical as phonetically described, but certainly not identical as spoken by robo-voice.)

It is most likely an inputting error to the speech synthesis engine.