this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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[–] aeronmelon 16 points 3 months ago (12 children)

Xolo - hairless Mexican dog

Xenops - small bird

(I don’t use X-Ray because saying the letter X doesn’t make either of the letter’s major phonetic sounds.)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (11 children)

saying the letter X doesn’t make either of the letter’s major phonetic sounds

Excuse me?

[–] aeronmelon 18 points 3 months ago (8 children)

X, spoken as a letter = ecks

Hard phonetic sound = zz, same as the letter Z (almost always at the beginning of a word. Xylophone)

Soft phonetic sound = ksk (never at the beginning of a word. Box, oxen)

(disclaimer: American English, ymmv.)

[–] oyfrog 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

By this definition, Xolo wouldn't fit because the x in Xolo is somewhere between sh- and ch-. It's a Nahuatl word and many (if not all) Xs are sh-/ch-.

Sorry for being pedantic.

[–] aeronmelon 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Don’t be sorry, you’re not pedantic enough.

The Nahuatl word Xoloitzcuintle is something the vast majority of English-speaking Americans can’t read, let alone spell or pronounce correctly. So the more digestible word Xolo was adopted to identify Mexican hairless dogs (hard X, hard O, L, hard O).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

As an English speaking American I can confirm. I started pronouncing it in my head then kinda gave up cus I haven’t had enough coffee yet

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