Explanation of Pronunciation
- The Old Spanish pronunciation of ‘x’ is /sh/. But over time, due to a consonant shift where sibilant consonants became non-sibilant fricative sounds,
- /ʃ/ “x” > /x/ fricative velar voiceless “ja, o, u” and “ge, gi”
- In Modern Spanish ‘x’ is pronounced /ks/, except in a few words like “México” /méxico/.
- In Old Spanish the letter ‘ç’ and ‘c+i, e’ are pronounced like /ts/ but later evolved to ‘c’ which is the phonemes of the seseantes varieties /Ɵ/ or /s/ depending on where the word is being spoken.
- In old Spanish the letter ‘z’ pronounced like /dz/ later evolved to /s/ in Modern Spanish.
- The Old Spanish pronunciation of ‘j’, ‘g’, and ‘i’ was /Ʒ/ This evolved to /x/ in Modern Spanish pronounced like the letter ‘h’.
- The Old Spanish pronunciation of ‘v’ is like the /b/ in Modern Spanish. This sound change from Latin stayed consistent through old to modern Spanish. There is a difference between /b/ (word initial, or after nasal consonant) and /β/ (other contexts) and how you pronounce the ‘v’ depends on its position in the word.