In the past couple of days I've been knocked out with the flu, and can't do much of anything useful, though I have spent a bit of time watching some YouTube guitar videos. Then to my surprise, I noticed in two of those, the people doing the demo pronounced "tremolo" as trem-OH-low rather than "TREM-uh-low", which is how I always said it.

For a minute I thought "could I have been pronouncing it wrong all along?" But a few seconds with Google confirmed the standard pronunciation was the one I've used forever. So either it was just a wild coincidence that I happened upon two different videos in the same day with the non-standard pronunciation, or that maybe there are a lot of people out there who don't know how the word is supposed to be pronounced.

Of course, one could also argue that "tremolo" should often be pronounced "vibrato".

Since it's an Italian word, definitely the former - trem-OH-lo. No W at the end either, the last O stays open and short, while your mouth forms the shape of, well, the letter O. Piccolo, Solo etc.

I attribute it to brain-tongue laziness, and a bit of cultural arrogance.

OTOH, while trying to pronounce 'foreign' words too correctly, with exaggerated accent it often comes off as unnatural, pretentious and condescending. See Steven Segal for some great cringe examples.

As a non-native English speaker with horrible accent myself, I often find it hilarious how Americans massacre European car names, but that's OK tho, you kno.

Last edited: Feb 02, 2019 14:34:04

synchro wrote:

I was spelling it phonetically, the "W" is silent.

I got that. But still, it should be shorter than Hello.

Synchro - I think it was one of Ryan's videos that I just watched.

Ariel - no offense taken. This is just a goofy rant for fun.

And notice that I didn't ask for the "correct" pronunciation - I was calling them standard vs. non-standard in recognition that there are multiple ways to pronounce many words.

And you are right about Americans mis-pronouncing European car names, but it goes in both directions. They sell the Hyundai Tucson in the UK, but how they pronounce Tucson is really grating to my ears. The English are better at pronouncing French words and horrible at Spanish, but in the US, it's reversed. They're probably equally bad at pronouncing Italian words.

edwardsand wrote:

Ariel - no offense taken. This is just a goofy rant for fun.

And notice that I didn't ask for the "correct" pronunciation - I was calling them standard vs. non-standard in recognition that there are multiple ways to pronounce many words.

And you are right about Americans mis-pronouncing European car names, but it goes in both directions. They sell the Hyundai Tucson in the UK, but how they pronounce Tucson is really grating to my ears. The English are better at pronouncing French words and horrible at Spanish, but in the US, it's reversed. They're probably equally bad at pronouncing Italian words.

I am somewhat uniquely prepared to address the pronunciation and corruption of the name Tucson. The average American pronounces it two-sawn, in Mexico its pronounced tūk-sawn, long U, hard C. But it actually comes from the O’Odham language Chuk Son, think shoe-k-shawn, or something close thereto. I have heard from O’Odahm friends that it actually refers to where the water begins to flow underground, but it is commonly thought to refer to the settlement at the base of the black mountain, which brings yet another controversy; does it refer to Sentinal Peak (just west of downtown Tucson) or Black Mountain, south of town, but where the O’Odham live to this day? BTW, O’Odham is pronounced aw-thum. I worked at the base of Black Mountain for 18 years, so I heard it about as directly as possible.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

edwardsand wrote:

Synchro - Thanks for the insights on the origins of the name Tucson. My wife was born there, so she gets particularly disturbed hearing the Brits say "Tuck-sin".

And how Native American place names have been butchered over time is whole different story.

The butchery is not necessarily intentional, or even negligent. Language differences are a huge hinderance to understanding.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Getting back to the original question: According to Leo Fender's biography, the correct pronunciation of the word "Tremolo" is:

Vibe-BRATE-Oh

Member in good standing, Mentone Beach Syncopation Reverberation Association

edwardsand wrote:

And vice versa! (as I alluded to in the original post. Did Leo F. really pronounce it that way?

Dang, how did I miss that?! Sorry, didn't mean to steal your joke... that's comedy GOLD, I tell ya!

Member in good standing, Mentone Beach Syncopation Reverberation Association

Ariel wrote:

Since it's an Italian word, definitely the former - trem-OH-lo.

Italian guy reviewing some pedals.
At 1:10, and during the rest of the video he clearly says TRE -molo, not trem-OH-lo.
But it could be that he forgot that tremolo is an italian word and he pronounces it like English people would.

Last edited: Feb 05, 2019 08:28:02