Xavier Becerra a question

[Botany]

Is his first name pronounced with a Z or the Spanish H?

[Wounded Bear]

1. Spanish "H" I believe. That's how I remember it being said...nt

[onecaliberal]

2. Its with an H.

[wryter2000]

3. Thanks

I should have known that, esp. given that I live in CA.

[onecaliberal]

4. No worries.

[Orangepeel]

5. He says it with an H sound

Last edited Mon Dec 7, 2020, 02:45 PM - Edit history (1)

He says it at the beginning of this video
https://www.c-span.org/video/?320477-1/house-democrats-unveil-economic-agenda

[Botany]

11. Thank You

My name is Hav ... E .. R Baa sahra .... if I heard it right.

[MurrayDelph]

6. As far as I can tell

The only times it's pronounced with a Z is when talking about Cugat or Professor X.

[ananda]

7. That's why Bexar County (San Antonio)..

is pronounced Bear County.

Texas should be pronounced Tehas,
but we Anglicized it.

Also, the town of Mexia, Texas is
pronounced Mehaya.

[Rstrstx]

10. Most of the time an "x" in Spanish is pronounced like English

It’s an old Latin letter (Maximus, excelsa, etc) so maximo and excelente are pronounced just as you’d expect them to be. The problem comes in when you’re substituting it for another letter.

[Caliman73]

8. H sound.

In the Mexica (Meshica) language it would be pronounced with a "sh" sound, but the Spanish pronounced it like an H and changed many names with the X to a J like Javier.

[aidbo]

9. Except Xavier's etymology goes back to Basque (ie European)

So it probably wouldn’t be said with the pronunciation of an indigenous American language.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_(given_name)#Etymology

Xavier comes from the name of the Jesuit missionary saint Francis Xavier, where Xavier stands for his birthplace of Javier (Xabier in Basque; Xavier in Old Spanish) in the Kingdom of Navarre. The toponym is itself the romanization of the Basque place-name (and surname) etxe berri, meaning 'castle', 'new house' or 'new home'.[2]