Lois’s answer to “Just rereading Captain Vorpatril's Alliance and I keep wondering : Is it Ivan Xav like "have" or li…” > Likes and Comments
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The Spanish version of Xavier would be pronounced like "have"...
I should correct/clarify myself; I say it like Zav, not have.
Ta, L.
LOL! But we do see abbreviations that have different sounds from the whole word or name. Lots of names have sound shifts that way.
with German heritage, we go for Gksäav
I hope you don't mind Lois, but since my son's middle name is Xavier, I wanted to elucidate the linguistic history of this name. Since the name does not come from Greek but from the romanization of a Basque phrase (it's a toponym) the pronunciation should follow the romance pronunciation instead of the Greek ( the same as when you say xylophone, xenophobe). In Old Spanish the "x" sound represented the current "sh" sound in English, So Xavier in Old Spanish would have been pronounced "Shavier." The "sh" sound eventually palatalized and became our current sound which is closer to the "ch" sound in "loch." The "h" sound in English is too soft. The Spanish sound (not counting the Caribbean) is much harsher.
I understand people can pronounce the name as they want, and the bearer of the name (or in this case the creator) has the final saying on how it is pronounced. But in most romance languages, the pronunciation has kept to the original (give and take a few variants like the aforementioned palatalization). So, say the world "loch" as in the "Loch Ness Monster" and transpose that final sound to the beginning of Xavier or simply say it "Shavier" if you want to do the name justice. It's always puzzling to me when people pronounce the name with a hard "x" sound since that violates the rules of English (the hard "x" sound is usually only permitted when the letter "x" is preceded by a vowel or on its own).
I live in Catalonia, where Xavier is a common name, often abbreviated to Xavi. It may be pronounced Shavi or Chavi or something in between. The equivalent Spanish name is Javi, pronounced Havi.
Xavier is a Catalan first name, normally abbreviated to Xavi, which is pronounced Shavi. However, I doubt that the Vorpatrils are Catalan, so they can choose their own pronunciation.
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Deirdre
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Jun 04, 2016 10:46AM
The Spanish version of Xavier would be pronounced like "have"...
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I should correct/clarify myself; I say it like Zav, not have.Ta, L.
LOL! But we do see abbreviations that have different sounds from the whole word or name. Lots of names have sound shifts that way.
with German heritage, we go for Gksäav
I hope you don't mind Lois, but since my son's middle name is Xavier, I wanted to elucidate the linguistic history of this name. Since the name does not come from Greek but from the romanization of a Basque phrase (it's a toponym) the pronunciation should follow the romance pronunciation instead of the Greek ( the same as when you say xylophone, xenophobe). In Old Spanish the "x" sound represented the current "sh" sound in English, So Xavier in Old Spanish would have been pronounced "Shavier." The "sh" sound eventually palatalized and became our current sound which is closer to the "ch" sound in "loch." The "h" sound in English is too soft. The Spanish sound (not counting the Caribbean) is much harsher. I understand people can pronounce the name as they want, and the bearer of the name (or in this case the creator) has the final saying on how it is pronounced. But in most romance languages, the pronunciation has kept to the original (give and take a few variants like the aforementioned palatalization). So, say the world "loch" as in the "Loch Ness Monster" and transpose that final sound to the beginning of Xavier or simply say it "Shavier" if you want to do the name justice. It's always puzzling to me when people pronounce the name with a hard "x" sound since that violates the rules of English (the hard "x" sound is usually only permitted when the letter "x" is preceded by a vowel or on its own).
I live in Catalonia, where Xavier is a common name, often abbreviated to Xavi. It may be pronounced Shavi or Chavi or something in between. The equivalent Spanish name is Javi, pronounced Havi.
Xavier is a Catalan first name, normally abbreviated to Xavi, which is pronounced Shavi. However, I doubt that the Vorpatrils are Catalan, so they can choose their own pronunciation.
