Bella???

[onnanokata]

Tcy:
Is there any agreement how to pronounce the name Bellatrix?
 
~Cassie~:
Well, in the American audio books it is pronounced  bell-LAH-
tricks.  I've also heard the star Bellatrix is pronounced bell-LAY-
tricks among my astronomy friends.  

~Eloise wrote:

Whereas I, being English (we routinely stress different syllables 
from US English speakers) and harking back to schoolgirl Latin, would 
almost unquestionably evenly stress the three syllables, or put a 
very slight emphasis on the first. Just like the name Bella, only 
with a trix on the end (although of course the derivation is 
different, Bella being the Latin for beautiful and Bellatrix, from 
bellum, war, meaning female warrior). Putting a 'lay' sound in the 
middle and even more, emphasising it, sounds *very* American <g>.
 
I don't recall offhand how Stephen Fry pronounces it, but I think I 
would have noticed if he pronounced it much differently.
 
So no, there isn't agreement. ;-) What a boring idea!
 
Dharma replies:

Has anyone else heard the pronunciation [bel-LAY-triks] in a context 
other than Astronomy.  That particular vowel choice is not really 
typical of most North American English phonological dialect patterns 
that come to mind, US or Canadian. [bel-LAH-triks] is more consistent 
with our liberal use of Latinate phoneme choices.  Even [bel-lah-
triks] and [BEL-lah-triks] match a bit more to how we speak.  [bel-
LAY-triks] sounds more like something a young person would try the 
first time he/she encounters the word in Spelling/Reading class.  
I've never heard this pronunciation, even from a very young person in 
conversation.  I've not heard the US version of the books on tape 
either.  Can anyone offer some insight on this one?  I find it very 
interesting.