A.R.M. ([info]kinkyturtle) wrote,
@ 2008-02-19 01:40:00
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Current music:TMBG - Brain Problem Situation

When I see harles, I eat them
What is the deal with pronouncing Xavier "ex-avier"?! Why not go all the way and call him "See-harles Ex-avier"?


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[info]zrath
2008-02-19 08:01 am UTC (link)


"Ex-avier"? That's weird.

In French, the "x" has its own sound, it's not pronounced like a "z".
It's pronounced "gz" with a hard "g".
So it's "gzavier" and "gzylophone" and "gzergzes".


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[info]kinkyturtle
2008-02-19 08:37 am UTC (link)
Actually, the way people say it is usually more like "egzavier". English speakers could pronounce it "gzavier", except that because the sound combination "gz" never appears at the beginning of a word in English, they think they can't pronounce it.

That's the same reason they say "sunami" instead of "tsunami". It's some kind of weird phonetic brainwashing.

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[info]athelind
2008-02-19 04:45 pm UTC (link)
I say "tsunami", pronouncing the "t", but I've always pronounced Chuck's surname as "Zavier".

Now, I know someone whose middle name is "Xavier", and he insists that he's always prnounced it "Ecksavier".

Amusingly, there's an extensive discussion of How To Pronounce Professor X's Surname in the TV Tropes pages about Two First Names, which I was looking at just last night.

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Zavier
[info]kinkyturtle
2008-02-20 12:39 am UTC (link)
Me too, actually.

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[info]orv
2008-02-19 06:13 pm UTC (link)
The way English incorporates foreign words and names is often to anglicize the pronunciation. We don't pronounce the P in "Pfizer," either, for example. The difference between English and other languages is we don't usually feel the need to change the spelling when we do this. ;)

Of course, we're kind of inconsistent about it. We anglicized "restaurant" (by pronouncing the "t") but not "Chevrolet."

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[info]kinkyturtle
2008-02-20 12:36 am UTC (link)
I pronounce the P in Pfizer! I can do it without spitting, even!

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[info]rubbertexcooper
2008-02-19 08:13 am UTC (link)
Wa... h....uh.... *Cries* You broked my brain again. T.T lol

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[info]ceruleanst
2008-02-19 12:47 pm UTC (link)
Schoolhouse Rock has that to answer for.

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[info]nefaria
2008-02-19 01:09 pm UTC (link)
I was going to say Dr. Charles Xavier from X-Men started the trend, but Schoolhouse Rock came first. I guess people think every word that starts with x has to be pronounced as x because x-ray does.

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[info]bassfingers
2008-02-19 02:01 pm UTC (link)
And X-acto. But yeah, those are really about it...

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[info]athelind
2008-02-19 04:46 pm UTC (link)
XYLOPHONE.

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[info]deckardcanine
2008-02-19 04:54 pm UTC (link)
Xenophobic xerographers and xanthodontous xanthippes.

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[info]bassfingers
2008-02-19 05:31 pm UTC (link)
You pronounce xylophone "ecksylophone?"

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[info]kinkyturtle
2008-02-20 12:37 am UTC (link)
Nobody does!

So why do they feel the need to say "ex-avier"?

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[info]bassfingers
2008-02-20 12:47 am UTC (link)
But [info]nefaria and I were saying that X-Ray and X-Acto are the only X-words that are pronounced ecks-. [info]athelind seems to think Xylophone needs to be added to that list of ecks words. Not sure why.

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[info]kinkyturtle
2008-02-20 03:36 am UTC (link)
I'll let Athelind answer that.

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[info]deckardcanine
2008-02-19 04:55 pm UTC (link)
You may as well ask why "Stephen" has the only PH that sounds like a V.

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[info]kinkyturtle
2008-02-20 12:38 am UTC (link)
Or how about "Thomas"? Why is TH pronounced T there?

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[info]deckardcanine
2008-02-20 02:42 am UTC (link)
At least that's not entirely unique. You know how to pronounce that English river, no?

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[info]ajoreilly
2008-02-20 03:04 am UTC (link)
Yeah, "thaymes."

Oh wait, that's the New English river.

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[info]kinkyturtle
2008-02-20 03:37 am UTC (link)
Yoo meen thuh Temz?

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[info]deckardcanine
2008-02-20 03:41 am UTC (link)
Ryte.

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[info]chocorisu
2008-02-19 11:54 pm UTC (link)
Cause it's a silly comic book pun?

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[info]deckardcanine
2008-02-20 02:43 am UTC (link)
Not exclusively. I recall from TV ads that "Xavier Roberts" has it pronounced the same.

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[info]chocorisu
2008-02-20 03:52 am UTC (link)
Then... it must be cause it sounds COOL.

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[info]thecanuckguy
2008-02-20 12:00 am UTC (link)
I suppose that a persons pronounciation of their name is up to them, unlike the spelling (which was assumedly registered at birth), pronounciation can be any which way.

Of course, I'm a Winnipegger, and only a Winnipegger knows how to pronounce names like "Lagimodiere", "Portage Avenue", "Des Meurons" and even "Plessis" (which I've seen widely mispronounced even from other Winnipeggers!) Granted, street names have no definitive pronounciation, but at least two of those are from proper anmes, that do have definitive pronounciations.

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[info]bassfingers
2008-02-20 07:55 am UTC (link)
"It's only spelled Luxury Yacht. It is pronounced Throat-wobbler Mangrove."

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[info]ronald_mack
2008-02-20 12:36 am UTC (link)
Probably because so many alphabet charts in schools have X-ray as the only x word example, so they think that X just sounds like "ecks" in most words.

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[info]qaianna
2008-02-20 05:53 am UTC (link)
All I know is that it's how I've usually heard the name pronounced. Kind'a like how it sounds, too. French seems to have it 'Za-vee-AY', which seems in line with French rules on spelling; the Spanish equivalent isn't bad either, tho I actually get somewhat annoyed when someone pronounces it as an English 'j'.

And for the record, ever since watching anime more I've been trying to use 'tsu' as its own syllable. It's hard.

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[info]errickfoxy
2008-02-23 04:59 pm UTC (link)
I got it from the cartoon version. Saturday mornings. He was Ex-avier there, so that's the version that stuck with me.

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