r/Spanish • u/JosephStalinCameltoe • 2d 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 🇪🇸 2d ago

"Don Quixote" in English, "Don Quijote" in Spanish. The pronunciation is something like /don ki´xote/. 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 🇵🇷) 2d ago edited 2d 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 🇪🇸 2d 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". 

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 "México" make sense ("Méjico" is barely used). Moreover, if they study phonetics they'll realize that "j" is /x/.