[Julie Steiner]

Feeling ambivalent, huh?

For me, the main difference between the two is that I've never heard a living person say "vale" who wasn't referring to an Appalachian folksong.

[Edited to say: Or praying the Rosary--although a lot of the congregation says "valley of tears" these days, instead of the "vale of tears" I learned. Further evidence that the word "vale" tends to strike modern sensibilities as archaic and/or excessively poetic, even to people who seem to have no problem saying "To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this" immediately beforehand.]