I had a bit of time to kill earlier today so searched youtube for reviews of the new Octavia. One thing that struck me was that in the two I watched the presenters both pronounced it Oct ar via. I have never heard it said this way before, in these parts it's an Octavia, (Oct ay via) with the "a" pronounced as in David.

The question is then, is pronunciation of Octavia a regional thing or were these useless southern jessies that hadn't got the first clue about the car they were reviewing?

Edited 21 May, 201313 yr by Baldgerry

Always heard it pronounced "Oc tay vee ar" until Vicky Butler-Henderson on 5th Gear pronounce it "Oct tar vee ar". So far the only one that I've heard say it that way.

I heard Fabia suffers the same, "Fab ee ar"(fab as in fabulous) or "Fay bee ar" (rhyming with Labia)

Either way, still sounds better than Astra or Mondeo ;)

I think the official line from Skoda when they launched the Octavia was that both it and the Fabia were pronounced with an "ar" or moreso an "aah" sound. We've just Anglicised it in the same way most of us do with Porsche and Braun. Don't think Pipkins made it past these shores anyway :-)

I've been told I own a Shkodda Octaahvia before by someome from the Czech Rep.... but I still say Skoada Octayvia - Just personal preference.

The hacek (that is how is called that diacritical mark on top of the "S" letter) makes the letter "S" to be pronounced as "sh".

The name Octavia is pronounced Oct-tav-vee-ah, name coming from latin and having the meaning of "eighth", Octavia being the 8th model that Skoda developed after WW2. When Octavia is used as a girl name, can be pronounced with an "ay" instead of "a", as in the case of David.

At least, inmho...

All the YouTube stuff from the Czech Republic has it pronounced Octarvia. I have always pronounced it Octayvia but I have also heard it with a hard 'a' as in bat.

Not important - a rose by any other name...

An' sithe 'ere, there's onny us Yorkshuh folk as knows 'ow to say stuff reet any'ow!

No good askin me init but, blumin welsh see

Gotta be octayvia mun, see, like, tidy

It is like the German 'a' when inside a word, pronounced 'arr'. So it is probably the same in Czech.

I suppose we should be glad it isn't written in Chinese these days........