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. 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.

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/)

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.