# HIV - pronunciation



## Encolpius

Hello, how do you pronounce this acronym? What I am most interested is how you pronounce letters H and I. Is it possible to write the IPA?  Thanks. 

*English*: [eıtʃaı'vi:]
*
Hungarian & Czech*: [ha:i:ve:]


----------



## phosphore

Serbian: [xiʋ]


----------



## Orlin

phosphore said:


> Serbian: [xiʋ]


 
The same in Bulgarian.


----------



## Favara

*Catalan:
*HIV -> VIH (virus de l'immunodeficiència humana)
"ve i hac" /ve i ak/


----------



## Encolpius

phosphore said:


> Serbian: [xiʋ]



Very interesting!!, just to be sure, you pronounce it as 1 word, not every letter separately as we, English or Catalans?


----------



## apmoy70

In Greek:
[eitsai'vi]


----------



## Outsider

Portuguese (Portugal):

HIV: [ɐˌɡa.iˈve]
VIH: [ve.i.ɐˈɡa] (this is the Portuguese version of the acronym, also used sometimes)


----------



## Frank06

Hi,

In *Dutch* we say [ha. i. ve.].

Groetjes,

Frank


----------



## rusita preciosa

Russian: *В*ирус *И*ммунодефицита *Ч*еловека /virus immunodefitsita tcheloveka/  - virus of immuno-deficite of human
 
ВИЧ /v-i-tch/


----------



## Perkele

[ho:i:ʋe:] or [hiʋ]


----------



## Encolpius

apmoy70 said:


> In Greek:
> [eitsai'vi]



Interesting, but logical. Thanks.


----------



## The Machine of Zhu

Frank06 said:


> Hi,
> 
> In *Dutch* we say [ha. i. ve.].
> 
> Groetjes,
> 
> Frank



Op de openbare omroep van onze noorderburen heb ik al een paar keer 'hiv' gehoord, uitgesproken als een woord. Maar ik vraag me af hoe courant dit eigenlijk is.


----------



## Encolpius

The Machine of Zhu said:


> Op de openbare omroep van onze noorderburen heb ik al een paar keer 'hiv' gehoord, uitgesproken als een woord. Maar ik vraag me af hoe courant dit eigenlijk is.



Hallo, het is een interessante opmerking, maar waarom ga je niet een topic te openen in het Nederlandse forum. Groetjes. Enc.


----------



## itreius

Encolpius said:


> Very interesting!!, just to be sure, you pronounce it as 1 word


Yes, it's pronounced as one word.


----------



## Encolpius

Well, interesting comments about the one-word pronunciation, but have just realized it is possible in Hungarian, too, in compound words like: HIV-fertőzés [hi:v-...], ie. HIV infection. Enc.


----------



## Volcano

*Turkish: hiβ*


----------



## hollabooiers

*Estonian:* [ha:i:ve:] or [hiv]. The first one's more common and official, but you hear [hiv] used as well.


----------



## ElFrikiChino

Italian:
[ak:ai'vu] as three separate letters: acca (H), i (I), vu (V). I don't know if you can put the long sound after a consonant, but in Italian we differenciate between single consonants and double consonants, obviously double consonants are pronounced with a longer sound.


----------



## Encolpius

ElFrikiChino said:


> Italian:
> [ak:ai'vu] as three separate letters: acca (H), i (I), vu (V). I don't know if you can put the long sound after a consonant, but in Italian we differenciate between single consonants and double consonants, obviously double consonants are pronounced with a longer sound.



Thank you. Another very interesting comment. "accaivu" sounds really completely different from aitch-I-we.


----------



## ElFrikiChino

Totally. And it's also curious: usually the letter V is pronounced "vi" (at least in my area), but when we say HIV, then V becomes "vu" - although "vi" would be closer to the English pronunciation. Go figure...


----------



## Elvus

Encolpius said:


> Very interesting!!, just to be sure, you pronounce it as 1 word, not every letter separately as we, English or Catalans?


We, Poles, also pronounce it as one word.


----------



## Nawaq

_VIH_ /ve.i.aʃ/.

(*French*)


----------

