Comments | babezilla1: Writer's Block: Repeat After Me...

babezilla1

Writer's Block: Repeat After Me...

Feb 10, 2008 20:55

Comments 13

(The comment has been removed)

babezilla1 February 11 2008, 02:31:08 UTC

Thanks. Not only do people mispronounce it after we are introduced properly, but even when the right pronunciation is repeated for them as a gentle nudge, they don't even seem to notice the difference.
Paternal grandmother actually insists that the "exzavier" is the proper way.
Cincinnati newspapers covering Xavier University make a point of letting you know which pronunciation someone used in a quote by writing either "Xavier" (insider) or "eggzavier" (outsider).

babezilla1 February 11 2008, 02:32:46 UTC

No says "exzerksees" for Xerxes, either.

nicu_nurse February 11 2008, 02:32:54 UTC

Is it a regional thing? I say zi-lophone and ex-avier....yep, I do. Are you going to drop me off your friends list now ;-)

babezilla1 February 11 2008, 03:00:15 UTC

No, I don't see regional differences so much as just luck of the draw as to what you heard first. Many anglophone Catholic traditions refer to the saint/Jesuit co-founder as Francis Exzavier, even though the Basque name from what is now northern Spain (but the ETA would like to change that) would not say anything like that.
No time for reviewing my Flist this week; got a midterm and a presentation. ;-)

aevalin February 11 2008, 02:37:01 UTC

I say both :) There is of course St.FX in Nova Scotia which is St. Francis Ex-avier...but for names of people I assume it's how you pronounce it for X.

I've gotten Johnny a lot for the record.

babezilla1 February 11 2008, 03:02:47 UTC

Right, see reply above. I know that's how they say it there, with a staunchly Brit background. Meanwhile, the university in Cincinnati says it as I do. I don't know how the New Orleans XU says it, although the French traditions of the area should get rid of the "ex."

babezilla1 February 11 2008, 03:03:38 UTC

Johnny is just funny. You could post it to the master thread. It's weird having a public post, even though so far it has borne pleasant fruit.

cariadusclan February 11 2008, 20:35:39 UTC

i still have to remind Amo that the X in "Xavier" is like the X "Xena".

babezilla1 February 11 2008, 23:57:49 UTC

Precisely. I can't think of any other X people try to pronounce. I'll add Xena to Xerxes and xylophone. :-)

cariadusclan February 12 2008, 00:59:19 UTC

"xerox" "Xanadu" "Xanax" are some other examples of the x at the beginning of a word making a /z/ phoneme. the problem is prolly the x -hypens, like x-ray, x-files, x-factor, x-rated, which seem to occur so much more often in daily verbiage.

angelinamaria February 11 2008, 23:53:36 UTC

And I've been pronouncing it with an "h" sound.

:D

babezilla1 February 11 2008, 23:56:46 UTC

That's how they do it Spain and south of the border, so it's all cool. I get the Frenchie way here sometimes in the doctor's office when they call our name.