3

More and more I see, especially in activist communities, Spanish-derived words ending in x or @ in order to neuter the gendering inherent in the original language. For example: latinx (or latin@) as opposed to latina and latino.

How, though, are these endings pronounced? Please provide evidence of how this orthography is most commonly pronounced.

Note 1: I recognize this is in an English Language site, rather than a Spanish language site, but this phenomenon is very much happening in English, albeit with Spanish loan words. Therefore the question is relevant to non-Spanish-speaking English speakers.

Note 2: A question like this can lead to politically charged or, at least, sarcastic comments. Please refrain from bringing in your biases for or against.

Note 3: This question is not seeking opinions as to how some people pronounce the suffixes. Answers should address evidence of a developing orthodoxy in pronunciation.

Improve this question
18
  • 4
    Definitely on topic for ELU, but might be helped by knowing what they do in Spanish.
    – Mitch
    Commented Sep 2, 2016 at 17:22
  • 4
    This is essentially a matter of opinion. But I've no doubt that people will quite naturally enunciate it as latinEX, since that's what it looks like. I don't expect many of them think of it as punning on -esque as a suffix (via AAVE ask = aks! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Sep 2, 2016 at 17:24
  • 7
    The question that is actually answerable is "how are these endings commonly pronounced when read aloud". As currently posed, this question is attracting inventive but not very useful answers to "how should these endings be pronounced".
    – MetaEd
    Commented Sep 2, 2016 at 18:48
  • 3
    @MetaEd You are right. That is the question I thought I was asking.
    – Unrelated
    Commented Sep 2, 2016 at 20:12
  • 2
    Lol. So crazy activists are trying to ruin Spanish too. That's funny.
    – developerwjk
    Commented Sep 2, 2016 at 20:24

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
7

I first encountered this in Costa Rica in the 1990s! (It was not widespread at the time, but it was in use in at least some activist organisations promoting gender equality.) As far as I can recall, I don't think there was a way of pronouncing it, it was simply a way of shortening one's writing. You could write "amig@s", but you would still have to say "amigas y amigos".

Improve this answer
1

Merriam-Webster (in a blog) says to pronounce the "x" in "latinx" as "ex", and they give the pronunciation as "\luh-TEE-neks" which in IPA would be something like /lə'ti neks/. Cambridge has voice samples that are similar.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .