twitterbadlyntrgood, or x, is the twenty-fourth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ex (pronounced ), plural exes.

History

The letter ⟨X⟩, representing, was inherited from the Etruscan alphabet. It perhaps originated in the ⟨Χ⟩ of the Euboean alphabet or another Western Greek alphabet, which also represented. Its relationship with the ⟨Χ⟩ of the Eastern Greek alphabets, which represented, is uncertain. The pronunciation of in the Romance languages underwent sound changes, with various outcomes: In Old Spanish, ⟨x⟩ came to represent, which it still represents in most Iberian languages and in the orthographies of other languages influenced by Spanish, such as Nahuatl. In French (with a few exceptions), Italian, Romanian, and modern Spanish, ⟨x⟩ was replaced by other letters. The use of ⟨x⟩ to represent was reintroduced to the Romance languages via Latin loanwords. In many words, the was voiced as.

Use in writing systems

English

In English orthography, ⟨x⟩ is typically pronounced as the voiceless consonant cluster when it follows the stressed vowel (e.g. ox), and the voiced consonant when it precedes the stressed vowel (e.g. exam). It is also pronounced when it precedes a silent ⟨h⟩ and a stressed vowel (e.g. exhaust). Due to yod-coalescence, the sequence ⟨xi⟩ before a vowel can be pronounced resulting from earlier, e.g. in -xion(-), -xious(-). Similarly, the sequence ⟨xu⟩ can be pronounced with (e.g. flexure, sexual) or (in luxury and its derivatives). Due to NG-coalescence, the sequence ⟨nx⟩ can be pronounced in anxiety. When ⟨x⟩ ends a word, it is always (e.g. fax), except in loan words such as faux. When ⟨x⟩ does start a word, it is usually pronounced 'z' (e.g. xylophone, xanthan). When starting in some names or as its own representation, it is pronounced 'eks', in rare recent loanwords or foreign proper names, it can also be pronounced (e.g. the obsolete Vietnamese monetary unit xu) or (e.g. Chinese names starting with Xi, like Xiaomi or Xinjiang). Many of the words that start with ⟨x⟩ are of Greek origin, standardized trademarks (Xerox), or acronyms (XC). 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), "by" (SXSW for South by Southwest), or various words starting with "ex-" (e.g. XL for extra large, XOR for exclusive-or, or the extinction symbol). X is the third least frequently used letter in English (after ⟨q⟩ and ⟨z⟩), with a frequency of about 0.15% in words. There are very few English words that start with ⟨x⟩ (the fewest of any letter).

Romance languages

In Latin, ⟨x⟩ stood for. In the Romance languages, as a result of assorted phonetic changes, ⟨x⟩ has other pronunciations:

Other languages

In languages which adopted the Latin alphabet later, ⟨x⟩ is used for various sounds, in some cases inspired by Latin or its descendants, but in others for unrelated consonants. Since the various Romance pronunciations of ⟨x⟩ can often be written in other ways, the letter becomes available for other sounds. An illustrative example of ⟨x⟩ as a "leftover" letter is the differing usage in three different Cushitic languages:

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨x⟩ represents a voiceless velar fricative.

Other uses

Related characters

Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

Other representations

Computing

Other