$q \rightarrow 0$. A general theory for transitions driven by orbital degeneracy by Elliott [@Elliott1977] and Young [@Young75] also reach the same conclusion with regards to the prediction of a soft mode close the zone centre. Experimentally, this would be reflected in the neutron response by a softening of the TA2 acoustic phonon branch and is more compatible with the results from ultrasound and also in agreement with neutron scattering experiments studying the low energy acoustic phonons in Jahn-Teller active PrAl$_{3}$ [@Birgeneau74]. In contrast to these predictions and previous experimental examples for Jahn-Teller driven structural distortions, we observe an anomaly at finite-$q$ over a limited intermediate range in wavevector. Another discrepancy concerns the central peak at $E=0$ [@Pytte73], which we do not observe at finite $q$. The strong increase in zone centre Bragg scattering upon cooling into the tetragonal phase, which had previously been reported by Wheeler *et al.* [@Wheeler10], may be instead related to the central peak, however it appears at a different $q$ than the acoustic phonon anomaly. Based on these comparisons with theory and experiment, it is difficult to associate the TA2 phonon anomaly in [[$\textrm{Mg}\textrm{V}_2\textrm{O}_4$]{}]{} with a soft mode due to a proximate Jahn Teller distortion 