Diana Kulaga wrote:
All,

I, and everone I know who grows orchids around here, have always pronounced
Brassavola with the emphasis on the third syllable (the vol).

Recently, at the WPB Judging center, a couple of judges announced that the
word is pronounced "BrahSAHvola.

What do you guys have to say? Is everyone in my orchid society
mispronouncing the word, as well as growers, etc?

Diana

Diana,
It's funny that you would bring that up. For decades, my only contact
with the orchid world was books and the AOS publications. Then, 10 years
ago, computers came into my life. Computers don't help much with
pronunciation (except at times like this).
After years of little to no verbal orchid contact, the Adirondack Orchid
Society was born (I consider myself one of the parents). Suddenly I have
to speak Orchid.
I'm pretty good considering the above. At the last meeting someone said
"BrassaVOLa" and I didn't dare correct him. After all, he used the
technique that Rob described and said it with great authority and
without hesitation. Since then, I have been looking up pronunciations
whenever I get the chance. I own "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of
Orchids" which gives a pronunciation for each genus. In there it is
pronounced "Bra-SAH-voe-la", which is what I have been saying (mostly to
myself) all along.
I did discover a few that I had a little wrong. I'm trying to remember
to correct myself. Sometimes I forget which ones I had right and which
ones I have to change. :-(

Steve