Hurdy-gurdy twenty-three different forms, and there is still no standardized design today. The six-stringed French "vielle à roue" is the best known and most common sort. A number of regional forms developed, but outside France the instrument was considered a folk instrument and there were no schools of construction that could have determined a standard form. There are two primary body styles for contemporary instruments: guitar-bodied and lute-backed. Both forms are found in French-speaking areas, while guitar-bodied instruments are the general form elsewhere. The box form of the "simphonia" is also commonly found among players of early music and historical re-enactors.
Hurdy-gurdy rolls, and more recently by electronic modules. The French call the barrel organ the "Orgue de Barbarie" ("Barbary organ"), while the Germans and Dutch say "Drehorgel" and "draaiorgel" ("turned organ"), instead of "Drehleier" ("turning lyre"). In Czech, the barrel organ is called "Flašinet". A person who plays the hurdy-gurdy is called a hurdy-gurdyist, or (particularly for players of French instruments) viellist. In France, a player is called un sonneur de vielle (literally: ""a sounder of vielle""), un vielleux or un vielleur. Because of the prominence of the French tradition, many instrument and performance terms used in English are commonly taken