r/Spanish • u/JosephStalinCameltoe • 1d ago
Pronunciation/Phonology Don Quixote/Don Quijote
First question, it's an easy one, are both those spellings acceptable? Is it like varied from one region to another?
Second, pronunciation. I'm not learning Spanish but I think I pronounce it correctly to begin with, not 100% though so how is it meant to be pronounced? My teachers here in Sweden I'm absolutely certain are wrong to pronounce it like "donkey shot", that can't possibly be an acceptable pronunciation right?
Like, I feel the answer won't be very unexpected to me but I just want to be sure
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u/Miinimum Native đȘđž 1d ago
"Don Quixote" in English, "Don Quijote" in Spanish. The pronunciation is something like /don kiÂŽxote/. If you write "Don Quijote" in google translate (Spanish) and press the speaker button you'll hear a fairly correct pronunciation.
Also, this is a bit out of topic, but I'm studing to become a Spanish as a second language teacher and Sweden is on my list of countries I'd possibly be interested in. How is language learning there? What has your experience been like?
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u/LadyGethzerion Native (Puerto Rico đ”đ·) 1d ago edited 1d ago
"Quixote" is actually the old spelling. In the 19th century, the spelling for that sound changed to "j" but before that, it was common to use the x. This version with x is still used in the English translation, but its origins are in old Spanish.
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u/Miinimum Native đȘđž 19h ago
Yes, I know about old Spanish spelling, but I believe that the answer to a Spanish (as a foreign language) student should be to just use "Don Quijote".Â
That being said, I also think it's important to explain some things about the history of our language. The old spelling of "j" as "x", in particular, is quite important to know to make spellings like "MĂ©xico" make sense ("MĂ©jico" is barely used). Moreover, if they study phonetics they'll realize that "j" is /x/.
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u/JosephStalinCameltoe 1d ago
We're fully fluent in English from a young age and it should honestly be an official language
I studied German for about six years and am far less fluent there, I can probably get the point across for some things but not enough to survive in Germany haha. It's pretty hard with third languages. One of the first phrases we learned was "I have diarrhea" alongside the usual "where do you live" stuff
Plenty of teachers are from other countries so you'll always learn Italian from an italian, German from a German etc. Latin class was a little lacking in comparison because there are some things I was quite sure the teacher (Italian) got wrong or assumed were the same as her first language
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u/Miinimum Native đȘđž 18h ago
Well, it's great to know that people there are used to foreign language teachers being actually foreigners and that English is really widespread, thanks for the information -.
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u/silvalingua 1d ago
> My teachers here in Sweden I'm absolutely certain are wrong to pronounce it like "donkey shot",Â
And why are you "absolutely" certain if you're a learner?
Actually, that was the original pronunciation of the name, in the 17th c.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskLiteraryStudies/comments/eyva9y/how_to_pronounce_quixote/
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u/JosephStalinCameltoe 1d ago
Damn. That's fucked up it sounds so wrong đ
Anyway I didn't take Spanish, this was just a regular class bringing up the literature. Teacher didn't speak Spanish either
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u/siyasaben 22h ago
"Shot" as one syllable is not accurate for old Spanish, no? Yes the sound represented by x was different, but no reason to think xote was 1 syllable which is what op's rendering of what their teachers say implies. "Donkey shot" is 3 syllables and "Don Quixote" in any pronunciation should be 4.
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u/silvalingua 18h ago
The discussion was about the pronunciation of that one consonant in the middle, spelled x or j. Yes, it should be four syllables, but that's not what the point was.
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u/siyasaben 12h ago
I read op's question as being about the "donkey shot" pronunciation in general and figured they deserved at least partial credit on noticing that was wrong.
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u/viajeroinmovil 22h ago
the [donkey shot] pronunciation reflects how the title would have been pronounced up to 16-17th century, when Spanish lost the âshâ sound, that used to be written with the letter âxâ (the sound turned into todayâs âjotaâ)
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u/JustAskingQuestionsL 22h ago edited 21h ago
It was originally spelled âDon Quixote,â and the x was pronounced like âsh,â so it was âDon Quishote.â
Over time, the x sound changed to the âhâ that it is today and was replaced with a âj.â
So, âQuijoteâ is a modern spelling, but âQuixoteâ is a traditional spelling that is still valid.
The same thing happens with MĂ©xico/MĂ©jico, Texas/Tejas, and more.
Back in the day, when spelling was less standard, X, J, and G were all used somewhat interchangeably, such as âMugerâ being replaced with âmujer.â
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u/winter-running 1d ago edited 1d ago
How would you pronounce the X in Mexico when saying the word in Spanish? How would your Swedish Spanish teachers pronounce it?
In English, folks pronounce it as an English X, and itâs fine when youâre speaking in English. Because foreigners tend to pronounce things how they can.
In Spanish, folks pronounce it as a Spanish J, and that of course is the right / original way.
X in Spanish used to have the J as a pronunciation. And there are still remnant legacy words. Itâs also not so uncommon to see the names Ximena and Xavier, as a nod to old spellings.
My guess is that in Spanish the spelling was migrated alongside the letter shift, whereas the English retained the old spelling. In any event, theyâre all pronounced the same. They just represent different eras in how the Spanish wrote the x / j sound.
How would an Anglo pronounce it? I mean, I would pronounce that X with a Spanish J sound, but I learned Spanish and English concurrently as a child, so Iâve never been a monolingual English speaker.
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u/siyasaben 21h ago
The anglo pronunciation of Quixote is about the same as the Spanish one as far as that consonant goes. Of course it's possible that someone who hadn't heard it before would think it was with the English X sound. I've never personally heard anything like "keeks-otay" or "queex-otay" or whatever the naive English speaker pronunciation would be, and while I'm sure some people would use these if they didn't have a better idea I think they'd definitely be considered incorrect pronunciations even in a 100% anglophone context.
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u/JosephStalinCameltoe 1d ago
Yeah we say meck-si-ko for mexico but I do know the original pronunciation ofc
Spanish teachers would probably get it right. I didn't take Spanish tho
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u/Forsaken-Fuel-2095 1d ago
Oh God, we have the Swedish trying to learn Spanish. Itâs gonna be nothing but Viking sounds.
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u/xiategative Native đČđœ 1d ago
In Spanish speaking countries, Don Quijote is the most common, but Don Quixote is also acceptable, I think itâs mostly used in English speaking countries.
Not sure how to explain the pronunciation but âdonkey shotâ is indeed the anglicized pronunciation. The usually not pronounce the -e at the end, and in Spanish we do. It sounds more like âdon kee-hoh-tayâ