Guitars, Violas, & Rabecas...

My husband has been fascinated with stringed instruments - especially of the plucking and strumming kinds - ever since he started learning how to play classical guitar. He looks for stringed instruments wherever we go and has now a cavaquinho and a mandolin besides his beloved Spanish guitar. We are now in Brazil and discovered what Brazilians and Portuguese call a "viola" - a 10-string guitar with a narrower top and that seems to be the instrument of choice in rural Brazil and Portugal. I've been searching the internet to find out what it is called in English (since a viola is more like a violin in that language) and so far, have only found texts on its portuguese provenance, its rural nature, and its dissemination throughout Brazil.

One quote is worth recording:
"a viola tinha pais portugueses, o violão tinha pais espanhóis, ambos eram netos de mouros e bisnetos de hebreus" by Gustavo Pinheiro Machado, a virtuoso of the viola. It reads: "the viola had portuguese parents, the guitar had spanish parents, both were grandchildren of moors and greatgrandchildren of Jews". I wonder what Sanchez-Albornoz would say about that...

Some sites I found:

Historia da Viola Caipira
Viola Braguesa
Roberto Correa