I'm curious, how come so many people change the first "x" into a "z"? Is it something about American pronunciation?
Xenex pronunciation?
- Thread starter BruntFCA
- Start date
And Canada. Think "xylophone".
Yes, that's the way "x" is always pronounced at the start of an English word derived from Greek: xanthate, Xerox, xerophyte, xenophobe, Xerxes, xiphoid, xylem, etc. The only exception I can think of is that "Xavier" is sometimes pronounced "gg-zavier," though sometimes it's just "zavier." (Here in Cincinnati, we have a St. Xavier High School pronounced the former way and a Xavier University pronounced the latter way.) And of course there's Xmas, pronounced "Christmas."
Uh, thank you. I didn't know that. I always pronounced it "x", I guess people were too nice to correct me (well, not that I use those words very often in conversation...).
You had me thinking it was "Zmas".
You had me thinking it was "Zmas".
There are people who pronounce "Xmas" as "Ecks mass." I think they pronounced it that way in Futurama, come to think of it.
Normally, though, yes, "Xmas" is simply a shortened version of "Christmas." The X comes from the Greek Chi, the first letter of "Christ" in Greek.
Yeah, that I knew. Hence the
Like Xanex, but with a "Ze" instead of a "Za"
Is that near Zenn-la?
This would be 'your moment of Zenn'.
There are some Simon & Schuster Audioworks adaptations of "New Frontier" and I'd expect them to be definitive for pronunciations.
Not necessarily. Audiobook productions don't always consult the authors about pronunciations.
I'm not sure I would know how to lead with a pronounced "x"-- and I went to Xavier High School. The "Ex-avier" pronunciation feels very regional to me-- since leaving the Cincinnati area, I tend to just go with "Zavier."
I'm used to "Zavier" from the university, but I've gotten so used to hearing "Charles Egzavier" in X-Men productions that it weirded me out the way one or two of the animated shows pronounced it "Zavier" instead.
Of course, just as I pronounce Xenex with a leading "x" sound, I tend to pronounce Xavier (both the saint and the mutant) as "habié", as I would do with the Catalan given name. I guess I'm irreducibly weird.
But have they got any wrong?
^You'd have to ask Peter David.
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