When does "X" sound like an English "H"?
I can't seem to figure out what the rule is...
6 Answers
it's a quite interesting question... once upon a time (before Nebrija's Book on Ortography from 1492) the Spaniards used to write "X" for this sound, it is a rest from Greek alphabet, in wich X sounds like an english "H". When the Spaniards got to America they named the new places with the old-fashioned way and therefore Mexico and Texas are pronounced like Méjico y Tejas (or 'Mehico and 'Tehas) It's just a trick of language's development. Anyway it's not a big mistake to say: meksico. Xiao!
How do you pronounce "xa" together in Spanish?
when it comes to Xavier... it's really tough to explain. in spain there are some languages like spanish,catalonians, basque, galician... (whether they are languages or dialects is not up to me, so i won't dig deeper) and Xabier is the catalonian spelling for Javier. as far as i know the catalonians say "tsabier" like english speaker say Church "'t??:rt?"so they say neither "habier" nor "ksabier"
How about in the name Javier or Xavier? How would you pronounce these names? I would use the "H" sound.
I did enjoy reading the first response to your question. Thank you alpla.
The x sounds "equis" in Spain, not j: jota.
The state of Oaxaca in Mexico is another example.
El estado de Oaxaca en México es otro ejemplo. 
wohaka
