Pronunciation of Via

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, how are you? This is Lindsay calling from Omaha, Nebraska.

Hi, Lindsay from Omaha.

Hello, Lindsay. What’s up? What can we help with?

So recently I’ve given a big presentation to over 100 people, and it was a presentation on how to use our product. And I didn’t even realize I’d said it. But apparently during my presentation, I had pronounced the word V-I-A incorrectly. I received some feedback that said you gave a great presentation, but you mispronounced the word V-I-A. And they said, I want you to know that so you don’t make that mistake again in the future. And I guess I didn’t realize there was an incorrect way to pronounce it.

Wait a second. Wait, let’s talk about—was this your employer?

Yeah.

Was this your employer? Your boss?

It was actually a customer. No, it was a customer’s feedback on my presentation after I was helping them.

Wait, so wait, did they stand up in the middle of the room surrounded by all your audience and tell you this?

No. Oh my gosh, I would have been mortified.

No, they sent an email after the fact.

Just to you.

They sent you an email.

That’s nicer. I was worried that they hadn’t taken anything else away except that they had a quibble about your pronunciation of the word.

No, and that was the only piece of feedback, and it just said, you know, hey, I love language, and I just want you to know you pronounced it incorrectly, so you might want to fix that for the future.

Oh, my goodness gracious. So what did you say?

I say, and I don’t know if this is correct, but I’ve always said it, I say via. We’re going to solve this problem via the new product that we’re releasing in March, something like that.

Exactly, yes. And, Lindsay, can you give us an idea of what kind of business you’re in?

I’m in the tech industry.

Okay. Okay. But you should have said VEA.

They think it should be VEA?

Yeah, and she spelled it with big capital V-E-E dash A, like VEA.

Oh, my goodness. All right. And what kind of expert is she?

I don’t know. That’s why I figured I’d ask the real experts to see if I was right or wrong so I could fix it if I needed to.

I’ve got good news for you. First of all, you don’t have to take language advice from a customer. The customer is always right. The second thing is there are two standard pronunciations of this word, and they overlap greatly, and it’s not altogether clear to anyone which one is the most correct at all times. Throughout the English-speaking world, people say both via and via. There is a general kind of separation of the two pronunciations. You probably say via if you’re using the proposition.

Okay. So we are solving this problem via the new product we’re releasing in March. You probably will say via if you’re talking about a street or a road or some landmark like that, or if you’re actually using the word from Italian or Spanish or other languages that have this word in it. And that’s generally most of the time people will do it that way. But it’s not altogether clear because it’s still a little bit tinged as a foreignism to most people which circumstances mean you pronounce it which way.

Interesting. So you’ve got some outs there is all that I’m saying. I’m guessing that you were pronouncing it the first way that Grant was talking about, though, right? You said via, right?

Yep, yep. I think my example was you would contact this person via this program or this way.

I do not have a problem with that at all.

I don’t have a problem with that either. As a professional language person, no, I think you were fine. And I think, did they give a reasoning for preferring via in that sentence?

They used the term American English. They said in American English, the correct pronunciation is via.

Can I be snarky for just a second with you? Just the three of us.

Absolutely. Just the three of us. Sometimes people have personal preferences that they like to pass off as universal rules. Those people should be ignored.

I like that.

Okay. I agree. But I felt so nervous like I had done something wrong and I had never even considered that I was saying it incorrectly.

Oh, my gracious. And do you have to deal with this person again, Lindsay?

No. I don’t believe so.

Did they buy your product?

I had given the presentation, so they didn’t need to. That had already been done.

Okay. But I did respond and all it said was I thank you for your feedback.

Great. That’s smart.

That’s nice.

That’s right. And then you stewed about it and called us.

I did. That’s exactly what I did.

Yes. Well, again, we both think you’re fine the way that you said it. The outs that you have are that there’s two standard pronunciations. There’s a little bit of separation in whether or not you’re talking about the noun via or the preposition via. But for the most part, most people feel that it’s a little foreign in their brain without really thinking about it and may try to foreignize it or hyper-foreignize it a little bit. And that might lead them to the via pronunciation, whereas the via one might be more generally used.

But you’re saying that the via, that the preposition can be pronounced either way.

Yeah, it can be. Via is more common, but it can, there are tons and tons of evidence for this being pronounced both ways by the most educated speakers of English, the most educated writers, the most august personalities that you can think of.

Right, so sort of like often and often.

Yeah, exactly. Two coexisting pronunciations.

So you’re cool, Lindsay. You’re cool, Lindsay. In more ways than one.

Oh, good. Good. I’m so glad I’m not wrong. And so that would be really hard to change at this point in my game to flip the script on how I pronounce it. So I’m so glad I don’t have to do that.

And if you get any more pushback on this, you send them to us. We’ll straighten them out, all right?

I will. Absolutely. Thank you so much.

All right. Take care.

Thanks, Nancy.

Bye.

You’ve been thinking about something. It’s been galling you. It’s a language question where somebody criticized your speech or your writing. You think you’re right. Give us a call. We’ll try to prove it. 877-929-9673.