Mexican X Part II: ¡Hijo de su Mexica Equis!
In Part I of this series on the letter “x” in Mexican Spanish, I explained the spelling of México: a consonant shift made mediveal /ʒ/ ([ž] or “zh”) devoice to /ʃ/ ([š] or “sh”). That sound already existed in Medieval Spanish. It was spelled ‘X.’ The x or “sh” started moving backward, becoming /x/ (the aspirated “h” sound of modern Spanish “j” and “g” before i/e) around the Conquest. Hence “México,” pronounced by most Spaniards of the time as “Méshico.” Then the new pronunciation cemented itself, and it became “Méjico.”
But not all eXes are equal.
A reminder: all the Vulgar Latin “X” had become [š] in Medieval Spanish. The “x” of México got caught up in Medieval Latin’s shift because of how wide-spread the name became. Other indigenous words suffered several different fates. To understand why, let’s go back to Latin.
Vulgar Latin wasn’t Spanish’s only source of Latin words. Catholic Church liturgy, science, and literature filtered new ones in as “inkhorn terms” and “classical compounds” (palabras cultas y semicultas) from the Renaissance on. Those with an “x” kept the Latin pronunciation /ks/.
Here are just a handful of these abundant terms, along with their Classical Latin origins.
FLEXIO > flexión (flexing)
MIXTUS > mixto (mixed)
TEXTUS > texto (text)
TOXICUM >…
