X

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Basic Latin alphabet
	Aa	Bb	Cc	Dd
Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Ii	Jj
Kk	Ll	Mm	Nn	Oo	Pp
Qq	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Vv
	Ww	Xx	Yy	Zz

X is the twenty-fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English (pronounced /ˈɛks/) is spelled ex,^[1] plural exes (/ˈɛksɨz/).

Contents 1 History 2 Usage 3 Codes for computing 4 See also 5 References

[edit] History

The consonant cluster /ks/ was, in Ancient Greek, written as either Chi Χ (Western Greek) or Xi Ξ (Eastern Greek). In the end, Chi was standardized as /kʰ/ (/x/ in Modern Greek), while Xi was standardized for /ks/. But the Etruscans had taken over Χ from older Western Greek; therefore, it stood for /ks/ in Etruscan and Latin.

It is unknown whether the letters Chi and Xi are Greek inventions, or whether they are ultimately of Semitic origin. Chi was placed toward the end of the Greek alphabet, after the Semitic letters, along with Phi, Psi, and Omega, suggesting that it was an innovation; further, there is no letter corresponding specifically to the sound /ks/ in Semitic. There was a Phoenician letter ḥeth with a probable sound /ħ/, somewhat similar to /kʰ/, but this was adopted into Greek as first the consonant /h/, and later, the long vowel Eta (Η,η), and does not seem to have been the source of Greek Chi. The Phoenician letter Samekh (representing /s/) is usually considered the inspiration for Greek Xi, but as noted, Chi had a graphically distinct shape from Xi—although it may possibly have been another variant originally based on samekh. The original form of samekh may have been an Egyptian hieroglyph for the Djed column, but this too is uncertain, as no intervening Proto-Sinaitic form of this letter is attested.

Egyptian hieroglyph "column"	Phoenician S	Greek Xi	Greek Chi	Etruscan X

[edit] Usage

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, [x] represents a voiceless velar fricative.

In some languages, as a result of assorted phonetic changes, handwriting adaptations or simply spelling convention, X has other pronunciations:

• Basque or Leonese: as a spelling for [ʃ].
• Dutch: The island of Texel is pronounced as Tessel. This is because ss was written with a ligature closely resembling the x.
• English: X is a double consonant or, rather, a sign for the compound consonants [ks]; or sometimes when followed by an accented syllable beginning with a vowel, or when followed by silent h and an accented vowel [ɡz] (e.g. exhaust, exam); usually [z] at the beginnings of words (e.g. xylophone), and in some compounds keeps the [z] sound, as in (e.g. meta-xylene). It also makes the sound [kʃ] in words ending in -xion (typically used only in British-based spellings of the language; American spellings tend to use -ction). It can also represent the sounds [ɡʒ] or [kʃ], for example, in the words luxury and sexual, respectively. Final x is always [ks] (e.g. ax/axe) except in loan words such as faux (see French, below). 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), or various words starting with "ex" (e.g. XL for extra large; XOR for exclusive-or).
• French: at the ends of words, silent (or [z] in liaison if the next word starts with a vowel). This usage arose as a handwriting alteration of final -us. Two exceptions are pronounced [s]: six and dix.
• In Italian, X is always pronounced [ks], as in the words uxorio, extra, xilofono. It is also used, mainly amongst younger generations as a short form for "per" meaning "for", for example, x sempre (forever). This because in Italian the multiplication sign (similar to x) is called "per".
• In Norwegian, X is generally pronounced [ks], but since the nineteenth century there has been a tendency to spell it out as ks whenever possible; it may still be retained in names of people, though it is fairly rare, and occurs mostly in foreign words and SMS language.
• Spanish: In Old Spanish, X was pronounced [ʃ], as it is still currently in other Iberian languages. Later, the sound evolved to a hard [x] sound. In modern Spanish, the hard [x] sound is spelled with a j, or with a g before e and i, though x is still retained for some names (notably México, which alternates with Méjico). Now, X represents the sound [s] (word-initially), or the consonat clusters [ks] and [ɡz] (e.g. oxígeno, examen). Even rarer, the x can be pronounced [ʃ] like in Old Spanish in some proper nouns such as Raxel (a variant of Rachel) and Xelajú.
• Galician, Catalan and Leonese language: In Galician (a language related to Portuguese and spoken in Northwestern Spain), and Leonese language, in Spain, x is pronounced [ʃ] in most cases. In cultisms, such as 'taxativo' (taxative), the x is pronounced [ks]. However, Galician speakers tend to pronounce it as s, especially when it appears in implosive position, such as in 'externo' (extern).
• In Portuguese, x can have four sounds: the most common is [ʃ], as in 'xícara' (cup). The other sounds are: [ks] as in 'fênix/fénix' (phoenix) and s, as in 'próximo' (close/next). The most rare is [z], as in 'exagerado' (exaggerate).
• In Albanian, x represents [dz], while the digraph xh represents [dʒ].
• Polish doesn't use X. In loanwords, X is either replaced by ks like in 'ekstra' (extra), or gz like in 'egzotyczny' (exotic).
• In the German and Italian languages, X is used mainly in foreign loan words.
• In Maltese x is pronounced [ʃ]
• In Vietnamese x is pronounced [s]

Additionally, in languages for which the Latin alphabet has been adapted only recently, x has been used for various sounds, in some cases inspired by European usage, but in others, for consonants uncommon in Europe. For these no Latin letter stands out as an obvious choice, and since most of the various European pronunciations of x can be written by other means, the letter becomes available for more unusual sounds.

• X has its IPA value [x] in e.g. Kurdish, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Tatar and Lojban.
• In Pashto, x represents [dz].
• In Pirahã, x symbolizes the glottal stop [ʔ].
• In Hanyu Pinyin, a transcription system for Mandarin Chinese, the letter x represents the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative /ɕ/.
• In Nahuatl, x represents [ʃ].
• Nguni languages: represents the alveolar lateral click [ǁ].
• An illustrating example of x as a "leftover" letter is differing usage in three different East Cushitic languages:
  • Afar language: voiced alveolar implosive [ɗ]
  • Oromo language: alveolar ejective [tʼ]
  • Somali language: voiceless pharyngeal fricative [ħ]

No words in the Basic English vocabulary begin with X, but it occurs in words beginning with other letters. It is often found in a word with an E before it. X is the third most rarely used letter in the English language.

[edit] Codes for computing

In Unicode the capital X is codepoint U+0058 and the lower case x is U+0078.

The ASCII code for capital X is 88 and for lowercase x is 120; or in binary 01011000 and 01111000, correspondingly.

The EBCDIC code for capital X is 231 and for lowercase x is 167.

The numeric character references in HTML and XML are "X" and "x" for upper and lower case respectively.

[edit] See also

Χ, χ : Greek letter Chi Х, х : Cyrillic Kha メ, Me, a Japanese katakana character א, Hebrew aleph 乂, a Chinese character, pronounced "Yì" in Mandarin Chinese.

ᚷ, Gyfu, a letter in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet used in pre-Norman Britain. XX XXX XXXX X mark

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: X

[edit] References

The Basic modern Latin alphabet
Aa	Bb	Cc	Dd	Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Ii	Jj	Kk	Ll	Mm	Nn	Oo	Pp	Qq	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Vv	Ww	Xx	Yy	Zz
Letter X with diacritics ẌẍẊẋᶍ Two-letter combinations Xa Xb Xc Xd Xe Xf Xg Xh Xi Xj Xk Xl Xm Xn Xo Xp Xq Xr Xs Xt Xu Xv Xw Xx Xy Xz XA XB XC XD XE XF XG XH XI XJ XK XL XM XN XO XP XQ XR XS XT XU XV XW XX XY XZ Letter-digit & Digit-letter combinations     X0 X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9     0X 1X 2X 3X 4X 5X 6X 7X 8X 9X     history • palaeography • derivations • diacritics • punctuation • numerals • Unicode • list of letters • ISO/IEC 646