X in Mexican Spanish

[Tyrn]

Hi,

According to SpanishDict, x sounds like kh in Mexico, otherwise it's always ks, except for the Greek words starting with x, where it is mute.

What are the rules for x in Mexican Spanish?

[Rusty]

Have a look at entry 2 here (https://www.rae.es/dpd/x). This describes how the letter x is officially pronounced in its three possible positions in Spanish words, even those borrowed from Greek.

Entries 3 and 4 describe archaic pronunciations of the letter x, complete with modern-day pronunciations. There you'll find that México is pronounced Méjico, and Texas, Téjas.

[Tyrn]

Thanks!

It's clear and exhaustive. So exceptuar in Mexican Spanish is ekseptuar?

[Rusty]

You're welcome!

Yes, it is.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Just for the sake of colorful notes: in daily speech, there are some words where we pronounce "ex" like /es/: ;)

· exceptuar - excepción -> /eseptuár/ - /esepsión/
· excursión -> /eskursión/
· exquisito -> /eskisíto/
· excavar -> /eskabár/
· excusa -> /eskúsa/
· expectativa -> /espektatíba/

It's usage in all registers. I've seen wrongly written some of these words, like "esquisito" or "escusa", because of how we pronounce them. :D

As for the rest of "x", some words that normally come from the colonial times, as Rusty mentioned, sometimes are pronounced like the letter "j": México, Texas, Xavier, Ximénez...


Finally, there is also the big mess from when indigenous words were converted into Spanish. Then you may find a variety of sounds: /ks/ /j/ /sh/ /s/

- Tuxtla -> /túkstla/
- Texmelucan -> /teksmelúkan/

- Oaxaca -> /oajáka/
- Xalapa -> /jalápa/

- Holbox -> /jolbósh/
- Xola -> /shóla/

- La Sierra Mixteca -> /la siérra mistéka/
- Xochimilco -> /sochimílko/



And one of my favourites:
Xoxtla -> /shóstla/

[poli]

it looks like there's rules here! Correct me if I'm wrong.

It the x is followed by a consonant, then it has a Z or S sound.

If followed by a vowel, it's sound is like the Spanish J

If it is the first letter of the word, the should be pronounced the SH

Of course, there are exceptions, Xavier in which the X is pronounced like J, but I am not sure that Xavier is Castillian.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Poli: I think there is only one official rule, and that is that "x" must be /ks/ in all cases, except when archaic writing is involved, like in "Xavier" or "Ximénez", which are pronounced as /j/. :)

Daily speech has made a few of us mispronounce the words I quoted as examples, but if there were some kind of rule, then words like "excomulgar" or "explosión", should become /escomulgar/ or /esplosión/, but these are uncommonly heard.


The use of "x" in indigenous words come from different languages and different transliteration criteria, so as far as I know, there is no rule. We often have doubts about pronunciation. For example, you'll find people pronouncing "mixiote" as /misióte/ and some others saying /mishióte/ or even /mishóte/


If "x" at the beginning were always /sh/, we wouldn't have "Xicotepec" (/jikotepéc/, or "Xochimilco" (/sochimílko/) :D

Yet, I will agree that it's more often to find /s/ when the x is at the end of a syllable like in "Cuexcomate" (/cuescomáte/) or "Xoxtla" (/shóstla/), but some words like "cacomixtle" (/kakomíkstle/) are quite often pronounced with the /ks/.

So regional use and original languages are rather anarchic here. ;)