Why do they start words with an X....

Discussion in 'Novel Discussion' started by Hiddena0, May 7, 2020.

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  1. Hiddena0

    Hiddena0 Well-Known Member

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    I keep seeing words that start with x. No word should ever start with x! like the word Xuan for example. How should I pronounce this. Is it like Zuan? Oh I guess there are some words that start with Z and are pronounced with Z but I still want to here other peoples opinions.
     
  2. elengee

    elengee Daoist Ninefaps

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    Xylophone.
    Xenophobia.
     
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  3. otaku31

    otaku31 Well-Known Member

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    Napoleon took a word (i.e., impossible) out of his dictionary; you took an entire class of words out of yours (i.e., those starting with "x")!:blobpeek:
     
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  4. elengee

    elengee Daoist Ninefaps

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    Dude needs to take a Xanax and chill. :blobpeek:
     
  5. kevmasterzoc

    kevmasterzoc Well-Known Member

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    There's a subtle difference in the sound of the 2 that Chinese people can differentiate since both the z and x sound is used regularly in that language. It just seems weird to you since X is not that commonly used in English. Just like how even though S and Z can sound quite similar but there's a subtle difference. M and N can sound similar in words too
     
  6. Zeusomega

    Zeusomega M.D of Olympus Pvt Ltd. Seeking [Boltzmann brain]

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    Well it's a different language translated, so there will be some words that won't have exact words in english language so the translators just write according to the pronounciation, or pin yin I think.

    Xuan is something like earth I suppose.

    And it's pronounced as uuan in Chinese.
     
  7. Effugium

    Effugium [Investigator], Praise Shigure-sama

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    No, it's not pronounced uuan
     
  8. Zeusomega

    Zeusomega M.D of Olympus Pvt Ltd. Seeking [Boltzmann brain]

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    Then? I'm no expert..nor do I know Chinese, but I remember reading it's pronounced like that, maybe I'm wrong.
     
  9. 222222

    222222 12121212121212121212121212121212121212121212121212

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    It doesn’t matter how you pronounce it, it will always be wrong as long as the pinyin is missing the accented vowel.

    (There are at least 4 ways to province xuan)

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. Effugium

    Effugium [Investigator], Praise Shigure-sama

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    Like, shuen i think? It's hard to write it down
     
  11. Zeusomega

    Zeusomega M.D of Olympus Pvt Ltd. Seeking [Boltzmann brain]

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    Yeah googled it, you are rt it's like shu-yen.
     
  12. Saitama.sensei

    Saitama.sensei [[xiantian lifeform]]

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    *Me trying to understand*:
    :hmm:..:blobdizzy:..:notlikeblob:..:sweating_profusely:..:blobflag:
     
  13. lnv

    lnv ✪ Well-Known Hypocrite

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  14. Stormaggeddon

    Stormaggeddon Well-Known Member

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    S and Z and M and N sound completely different to an English speaking person. X and Z while different sometimes sound similar. Xylophone and Zebra are my two examples.they sound similar but like the Chinese, we can tell the difference. now i said all this but English can be a funny language. silent letters and words spelt one way but sounding another also add to the mix. ph words for example, physics and phone...they sound like F.can't think of the silent letters off the top of my head, but they're there.
     
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  15. Doomr

    Doomr Well-Known Member

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    Sh - retroflex fricative
    X - velar fricative
     
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  16. chencking

    chencking [Daolord Grammar Nazi]

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    A professor once told me words that begin with x in Chinese are pronounced similar to a sh. So Xi would be pronounced Shi. There's probably more to the topic than that though.
     
  17. Doomr

    Doomr Well-Known Member

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    Shi and xi are different pronunciations. They’re both fricatives but the difference is one is retroflex while the other is velar
     
  18. Stormaggeddon

    Stormaggeddon Well-Known Member

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    now i actually understand that. the Shi is self-explanatory, while the Xi does sound a bit zeddy, it's not quite there. you do hear that X twang.
     
  19. Kemm

    Kemm Custom title

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    The pronunciation depends on the language and some other things. Initial X in words I've seen may take the sounds "z", "s", "ks" or "sh" (that last one is not exactly correct, but close enough for english pronunciation; and, yes, "ks" is pronounceable as a starting sound).
     
  20. AmethystCherry

    AmethystCherry Well-Known Member

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    It's just Pinyin, to make it's easier for foreigners to speak it. consider it Chinese English. The letter "X" is pronounced as "Sh" as in share, so Xuan is Shuan(shou-an). The letter "Z" is pronounced "Tz" so Zai is basically "Tzai". Xuan Zai is Shou-an Tzai. There are other letters of course..