X (minuscule: x) is the twenty-fourth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ex (pronounced ), plural exes."X", Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "ex", op. cit.
History Western GreekChi EtruscanX LatinX
The letter , representing , was inherited from the Etruscan alphabet. It perhaps originated in the of the Euboean alphabet or another Western Greek alphabet, which also represented . Its relationship with the of the Eastern Greek alphabets, which represented , is uncertain.
The pronunciation of in the Romance languages underwent sound changes, with various outcomes: French: (e.g., from ) Italian: (e.g., from ) and, in some cases, (e.g., from ) Portuguese: (e.g., from ) Romanian: (e.g., from ) and (e.g., from ) Old Spanish: Spanish: (e.g., from ) In Old Spanish, came to represent , which it still represents in most Iberian languages and in the orthographies of other languages influenced by Spanish, such as Nahuatl. In French (with a few exceptions), Italian, Romanian, and modern Spanish, was replaced by other letters.
The use of to represent was reintroduced to the Romance languages via Latin loanwords. In many words, the was voiced as .
Use in writing systems + Pronunciation of by language Orthography Phonemes EnvironmentAsturianAll environmentsIn between-vowels, only in learned loanwords, can usually be written as s as well Afar Albanian Azeri BasqueCatalanUsually (word-initially, after consonants)In the digraph ixIn the initial groups ex- and inex- followed by vowel, ⟨h⟩ or a voiced consonantBetween vowels, between a vowel and voiceless consonant and word-finally, after a vowel or consonant DutchUsually, mainly used in loanwordsIn Texel EnglishUsually; before an unstressed vowelBefore a stressed vowelWord-initiallyIn words derived from other languages, especially Spanish and Classical Nahuatl/Nahuatl. Esperantoin digraphs only as a substitute for a diacriticcx, gx, hx, jx, sx, ux are used as substitutes for ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, ŭ where these characters are not available, see X-conventionFrenchUsually; in Aix- (prefix or name of several places)Mainly in the prefix ex- followed by a vowel; sometimes word-initiallySilentWord-finally with no liaisonWord-finally with liaison; in sixième (6th) and dixième (10th)In six (6), dix (10), Auxerre, and Bruxelles (Brussels)GalicianUsuallySome learned loanwords GermanMainly used in loanwordsIndonesianIn the beginning of a word, mainly used in loanwords for scienceIn the middle or the end of a word, although words borrowed with the letter x in the middle or the end of a word are almost always replaced by the letters 'ks'. However, the letter x does appear in the middle or the end of certain names. ItalianMainly used in learned loanwords Kurdish Lao romanizationA "low consonant", affects the tone of the following vowel Leonese Ligurian Maltese Mayan (ALMG) Nahuatl Nguni NorwegianArchaic OccitanUsuallyBefore consonantsIn the prefix ex- before vowels in the Provençal, Limousin, Auvergnat, Vivaro-Alpine, and Niçard dialectsBefore and in the Auvergnat dialect Oromo Pirahã PolishUnused in Polish orthography, except in loanwords. PortugueseUsually, always when word-initiallyFound between vowels in some words, mainly in those that entered the language recentlyWhen preceded by and succeeded by a consonantIn the prefixes when before a vowel and Optionally in the prefix hexa-, although most dialects just pronounce this prefix's as or SardinianSicilianOld Sicilian words and names, e.g. Craxi and GiancaxioLoanwords Somali SpanishUsuallyWord-initially, , In some names and words Swedish Uzbek VenetianUsuallyIn Venexia, "Venice" Vietnamese
English In English orthography, is typically pronounced as the voiceless consonant cluster when it follows the stressed vowel (e.g. ox), and the voiced consonant when it precedes the stressed vowel (e.g. exam). It is also pronounced when it precedes a silent and a stressed vowel (e.g. exhaust). Due to yod-coalescence, the sequence before a vowel can be pronounced resulting from earlier , e.g. in -xion(-), -xious(-). Similarly, the sequence can be pronounced with (e.g. flexure, sexual) or (in luxury and its derivatives). Due to NG-coalescence, the sequence can be pronounced in anxiety.
When ends a word, it is always (e.g. fax), except in loan words such as faux. When does start a word, it is usually pronounced 'z' (e.g. xylophone, xanthan). When starting in some names or as its own representation, it is pronounced 'eks', in rare recent loanwords or foreign proper names, it can also be pronounced (e.g. the obsolete Vietnamese monetary unit xu) or (e.g. Chinese names starting with Xi, like Xiaomi or Xinjiang). Many of the words that start with are of Greek origin, standardized trademarks (Xerox), or acronyms (XC).
In abbreviations, it can represent "trans-" (e.g. XMIT for transmit, XFER for transfer), "cross-" (e.g. X-ing for crossing, XREF for cross-reference), "Christ-" (e.g. Xmas for Christmas, Xian for Christian), the "crys-" in crystal (XTAL), "by" (SXSW for South by Southwest), or various words starting with "ex-" (e.g. XL for extra large, XOR for exclusive-or, or the extinction symbol).
X is the third least frequently used letter in English (after and ), with a frequency of about 0.15% in words. There are very few English words that start with (the fewest of any letter).
Romance languages In Latin, stood for . In the Romance languages, as a result of assorted phonetic changes, has other pronunciations: In Catalan, has four to three (depending on the dialect) main pronunciations; the most common is and/or ; as in ('syrup'). Others are: with the digraph : ('same'), ; ('to fix'), ; . In addition, (from the digraph ) gets voiced to before voiced consonants or vowels; ('kashmir') and ('sword fish'). Catalan also has the digraph , pronounced . In Galician and Leonese, is pronounced in most cases (often used in place of etymological g or j). The pronunciation occurs in learned words, such as (taxing). However, Galician speakers tend to pronounce it , especially when it appears before plosives, such as in ('external'). In French, usually represents or (primarily in words beginning with ex- followed by a vowel) . It is pronounced in some city names such as (although some people pronounce it 'ks') or ; it is nevertheless pronounced in Aix, the name of several towns. At the ends of other words, it is silent (or in liaison if the next word starts with a vowel). Two exceptions are pronounced : ('six') and ('ten'). It is pronounced in and . In Italian, is either pronounced , as in , , , or , as in , when it is preceded by and followed by a vowel. In several related languages, notably Venetian, it represents the voiced sibilant . It is also used, mainly amongst young people, as a short written form for (meaning "for"); for example, (). This is because in Italian, the multiplication sign is called . However, is found only in loanwords, as it is not part of the standard Italian alphabet; in most words with , this letter may be replaced with or (with different pronunciation: /, /) or, rarely, by 'cs' (with the same pronunciation: /). In Portuguese, has four main pronunciations; the most common is , as in ('cup'). The other sounds are: as in ('flexion'); , when preceded by E and followed by a consonant, as in ( in European Portuguese), and in a small number of other words, such as (close/next); and (the rarest) , which occurs in the prefix before a vowel, as in ('exaggerated'). A rare fifth sound is , coexisting with and as acceptable pronunciations in and in words with the Greek prefix 'hexa-'. In Sardinian and Ligurian, represents . In Old Spanish, was pronounced , as it is still currently in other Iberian Romance languages. Later, the sound evolved to a sound. In modern Spanish, due to a spelling reform, whenever is used for the sound it has been replaced with , including in words that originally had such as or , though is still retained for some names (notably , even though may sometimes be used in Spain). Presently, represents the sound (word-initially), or the consonant cluster (e.g. , ). Rarely, it can be pronounced as in Old Spanish in some proper nouns such as (a variant of Rachel) and Uxmal. In Venetian, represents the voiced alveolar sibilant , much like in Portuguese , English 'xylophone' or in the French . Examples from medieval texts include ('reason'), ('prison'), ('desert'), and or ('home'). Nowadays, the best-known word is ('is/are'). The most notable exception to this rule is the name , , in which has evolved from the initial voiced sibilant to the present-day voiceless sibilant .
Other languages In languages which adopted the Latin alphabet later, is used for various sounds, in some cases inspired by Latin or its descendants, but in others for unrelated consonants. Since the various Romance pronunciations of can often be written in other ways, the letter becomes available for other sounds. In Albanian, represents while the digraph represents . It represents (voiceless velar fricative) in Apache, Azerbaijani, Kurdish (Hawar alphabet), Georgian (when Latinized), Lojban, Pashto (when Latinized), Tatar (Jaꞑalif, Zamanälif, official romanization of 2012), Uzbek, and Uyghur (Latin script). In Basque, represents . Additionally, the digraph represents . In Hanyu Pinyin, Standard Chinese's official transcription system in China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan, the letter represents the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative , for instance in 'Xi', . In Dutch, usually represents , except in the name of the island of Texel, which is pronounced Tessel. This is because of historical sound-changes in Dutch, where all sounds have been replaced by sounds. Words with an in the Dutch language are nowadays usually loanwords. In the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, family names with are not uncommon (e.g., and ). In Esperanto, the x-convention replaces , , , , , and with x-suffixes: , , , , , and . In German, generally pronounced ; in native words, however, such as or , the cluster is often written . In transliterations of Indian languages, primarily Indo-Aryan languages, represents the consonant cluster in alternate spellings of words containing (kṣ), especially names such as Laxmi and Dixit. Less frequently, is used to represent . In Lao, based on romanization of Lao consonants, represents , while appears to be homophonous with , it is a "low consonant" and affects the tone of the following vowel, e.g. in Lan Xang. In Maltese, is pronounced or, in some cases, (only in loanwords such as 'televixin', and not for all speakers). In Nahuatl, represents . In Nguni languages, represents the alveolar lateral click . In Norwegian, is generally pronounced , but since the 19th century, there has been a tendency to spell it out as ; it may still be retained in personal names, though it is fairly rare, and occurs mostly in foreign words and SMS language. Usage in Danish and Finnish is similar (while Swedish, on the other hand, makes frequent use of in native words as well as in loanwords). In Pirahã, symbolizes the glottal stop . In Polish, was used prior to 19th century both in loanwords and native words and was pronounced or , e.g., , (now , ). This was later replaced by and in almost all words and remained only in a few loanwords as 'xenia' (), surnames as , , and , names as , and , and abbreviations. In Vietnamese, represents . This sound was in Middle Vietnamese, resembling the Portuguese , spelled .
An illustrative example of as a "leftover" letter is the differing usage in three different Cushitic languages: Afar: voiced retroflex plosive Oromo: alveolar ejective Somali: voiceless pharyngeal fricative
Other systems