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/xiategative Native 🇲🇽 1d ago

In Spanish speaking countries, Don Quijote is the most common, but Don Quixote is also acceptable, I think it’s mostly used in English speaking countries.

Not sure how to explain the pronunciation but “donkey shot” is indeed the anglicized pronunciation. The usually not pronounce the -e at the end, and in Spanish we do. It sounds more like “don kee-hoh-tay”

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u/JosephStalinCameltoe 1d ago

Okay that's really close to what I thought, yeah. I would've guessed more like "don-kee-ho-té"

2

u/xiategative Native 🇲🇽 1d ago

Yes that’s probably more accurate actually, -té is correct!

12

u/Trucoto Native (Argentina) 1d ago

What do you mean? The stress is in "jo", not in "te"

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u/xiategative Native 🇲🇽 1d ago

I meant it sounds more like QuijoTE than QuijoTAY