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What does the "x" do in "auxdo"?

by joej, April 28, 2007

Messages: 5

Language: English

joej (User's profile) April 28, 2007, 11:06:45 AM

In the word of the day for April 28, the phrase "Atenti per la vido kaj auxdo tion, kio estas prezentata" is used. The dictionary replaces "auxdo" with "audo". What does the "X" do here?

JoeJ

mnlg (User's profile) April 28, 2007, 12:06:08 PM

joej:The dictionary replaces "auxdo" with "audo". What does the "X" do here?
The x helps distinguish the letters "u" and "ŭ". The so called x-system (iksosistemo) can be used to render accented letters when they are not available. The letter "x" is not in the Esperanto alphabet, therefore there can be no ambiguity.

"u" is a full vowel; it sounds like in Italian or Spanish (roughly like "oo" in "soon"). "ŭ" (ux) is a semivowel or semiconsonant; it behaves like "w" in english and it forms diphthongs when connected to other vowels (pretty much like "j" which sounds like "y" in English and it is the other semivowel in Esperanto).

I'm sure that Lernu offers other explanations and examples. I found this:
http://en.lernu.net/enkonduko/lingvoprezento/alf...

joej (User's profile) April 29, 2007, 11:54:19 AM

Thanks, I get it; the x indicated a semi-vowel.

mnlg:
joej:The dictionary replaces "auxdo" with "audo". What does the "X" do here?
The x helps distinguish the letters "u" and "ŭ". The so called x-system (iksosistemo) can be used to render accented letters when they are not available. The letter "x" is not in the Esperanto alphabet, therefore there can be no ambiguity.

"u" is a full vowel; it sounds like in Italian or Spanish (roughly like "oo" in "soon"). "ŭ" (ux) is a semivowel or semiconsonant; it behaves like "w" in english and it forms diphthongs when connected to other vowels (pretty much like "j" which sounds like "y" in English and it is the other semivowel in Esperanto).

I'm sure that Lernu offers other explanations and examples. I found this:
http://en.lernu.net/enkonduko/lingvoprezento/alf...

mnlg (User's profile) April 29, 2007, 12:12:58 PM

joej:Thanks, I get it; the x indicated a semi-vowel.
No, more properly, the "x", in the case you have mentioned, indicates that the letter is "ux" (ŭ), and not "u".

The letter x can be also used with c, g, h, j and s to indicate that the letter is "ĉ", "ĝ", etc.

You can read the "x" as in "add a circumflex/brevis sign to the previous letter".

Hope it is clearer now.

patbam (User's profile) May 2, 2007, 8:03:20 AM

Also check out:

Wikipedia: Esperanto orthography

It explains what the 'x' does -- the system is referred to as the "X-System."

There's also a less-used "H-System," and the entirely icky "Caret system."

Now that Unicode exists it's these things are becoming less and less necessary.

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