Thanks for this, John. Yes, the "x" in Spanish has an interesting evolution history. In the old texts (XV cent.) many things we now write with "j" (the Arabic you mention) appear with "x". Also some Catalán "x"s are "j"s and "g"s in Castilian and other times they became "ch", and even "tx" in Catalán are "ch" in Castilian.
Examples: .x->ch (from Catalán to Castilian) Elx--> Elche name of the city in the South of Alicante, famous for the finding of the Iberian sculpture Lady of Elx http://images.google.es/images?q=dama%20de%20elche&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&percentage_se rved=100&sa=N&tab=wi .x->g (from Catalán to Castilian) Moixent-->Mogente name of a town in the Valencian region, famous for the finding of the Iberian sculpture known as Warrior of Moixent http://images.google.es/images?q=guerrero%20mogente&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&percentage_s erved=100&sa=N&tab=wi .x->ch xic i xica-->chico y chica --- Also, John, was that performance you mention, something related to eye surgery, no laser, with a real surgery knife? That sound crude, but the important thing is that you can see better, all those letters: x tx sh ch 3 E G C P R U V * # @ ! b a r k Best, Ana ========================== Re: movie reviews - buñuel JOHN BENNETT Sat, 18 Mar 2006 10:50:23 -0800 The "x" in Mexico originated when the Spaniards couldn't pronounce the Nahuatl sound in that name, which is a sort of "sh" sound. They also used "x" to indicate certain sounds in Arabic they couldn't pronounce - so that "Guadalajara" used to be spelled "Guadalaxara" . Using an "x" is the older way of spelling these words. Anyway I had Un Chien Andalou performed on me a few weeks ago when i got my eyeballs scraped smooth with a knife so i could see better. It hurt like hell, but it worked: i can see a whole lot better now. And would like to see that Chien again myself. woof guau, john
