Pronunciation of "Librivox"

peastman · Post by **peastman** » January 28th, 2006, 7:54 pm

Is there an official "correct" way to pronounce "Librivox"? On various recordings, I've alternately heard the first syllable pronounced "lih", "lee", or "lie". Given that it comes at the very beginning of every recording, I wonder if we should try to get everyone to agree on a single pronunciation?

According to the FAQ, Librivox comes from the Latin words libri (or liber) and vox. That would suggest "lee" as the correct pronunciation. On the other hand, it would also suggest that the last syllable should be pronounced with a long o (voxe), and I haven't heard anyone say it that way.

Peter

kri · Post by **kri** » January 28th, 2006, 7:59 pm

As there is no definitive way to determine how Latin was pronounced (there are good theories and educated guesses) I think we should continue as we do, pronouncing it as the reader wishes.

kayray · Post by **kayray** » January 28th, 2006, 8:16 pm

Heehee, I've been noticing this since we first began -- I find the variations delightful :) I vote we let them stay.

Kara

Gesine · Post by **Gesine** » January 29th, 2006, 8:14 am

Yes, I think it's fine, too. A German reader pronounced it LibriFox the other day (in a German reading, with German disclaimer), which is perfectly correct as in the German way of pronouncing Latin, a V is pronounced like an F... but it gave me a start at first! :)

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » January 29th, 2006, 8:18 am

the one that cracks me up is "LibraVox" .. I keep waiting for "CapricornVox" and "ScorpioVox" to surface too... hehe =)

Post by **hugh** » January 29th, 2006, 10:11 am

heh heh! ... you kinda do it the way you like.

I say, sort of: Lib-reh-vox
I don't mind: Leeb-ree-vox
but I'm not crazy about: Lybe-reh-vox

but that's just me...

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » January 29th, 2006, 11:33 am

I agree that one of the charms of Librivox (no matter how it is pronunced) is the variations of pronunciations... However, my only concern is if a listener is only hearing the recorded pronunciation and (for whatever reason) doesn't ever see it spelled out, they may not be able to find their way to the Librivox website as they may be spelling it incorrectly...

The easiest (though not cheapest) solution i see to this is simply to purchase domain names such as LibraVox or LeebraVox or LibraryVox or LibriFox, etc. and have them all redirected to Librivox.org ... maybe someday when we become rich and famous

kayray · Post by **kayray** » January 29th, 2006, 11:40 am

I got a "librabox" in one of my recordings :)

Instead of buying up sorts of outrageous domain names, we could rely on google to help out -- we could make a blog page something like:

"Hello! Are you looking for free public domain audio books? Perhaps you typed

leebrafox
libribox
lybravox

(etc etc)

Into a search engine. We hope you are looking for us - librivox.org" With a link to our front page. And then, if someone googles "lindafox audio books" they should find our page.

Kara

kri · Post by **kri** » January 29th, 2006, 1:08 pm

Well, we could also easily provide a text link in say...the comments ID3 tag. I'm not sure how much it fits, but it might fit recorder's name and the librivox address.