Re: Numbers in my con romance lang

En réponse à Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>:

> Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> > I thought one said /'mexiko/?
>
> Today, yes, but at the time that the Spanish invaded, <x> indicated /S/.
>
> > As for my use of x for /S/, I got the idea from Portuguese
>
> Yeah, Portuguese keeps the older values for <x> and <j>.  Old Spanish
> had <j> = /Z/, <x> = /S/.  Then, the voicing distinction was lost, so
> that both represented /S/, which then became /x/.  Hence, French _chef_
> was borrowed into Spanish as _jefe_, originally /Sefe/ -> /xefe/, and
> Spanish _lunja_ became English _lunch_ (/lunSa/ -> /lVntS/), and the
> town of Xérez (/SereT/, /Serets/?  Not sure how <z> was pronounced at
> the time; modern Jérez) gave "sherry"
>
Well, thanks for the info, now I understand better the distribution of the /x/
in Spanish. It was a point that always had eluded me before...

Christophe.