What does the "x" do in "auxdo"?
ca, kivuye
Ubutumwa 5
ururimi: English
joej (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 28 Ndamukiza 2007 11:06:45
JoeJ
mnlg (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 28 Ndamukiza 2007 12:06:08
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 (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 29 Ndamukiza 2007 11:54:19
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 (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 29 Ndamukiza 2007 12:12:58
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 (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 2 Rusama 2007 08:03:20
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.