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In:Spanish Socio-Historical Linguistics: Isolation and contact
Edited by Whitney Chappell and Bridget Drinka
[Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics 12] 2021
► pp. 205–230

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Anthroponymic perseverance of Spanish vestigial 〈x〉

 | California State University, Bakersfield
Published online: 13 May 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.12.c09par
Abstract
Until the early 19th century, the letter 〈x〉 was a common representation of the voiceless velar fricative /x/ (Quixote, brúxula). Despite the Royal Spanish Academy’s (RAE) 1815 elimination of 〈x〉 for /x/, it has survived in a number of Mexican indigenous toponyms and their derivatives as well as in a handful of Spanish anthroponymic variants. Drawing on diatopic, diachronic demographic data, this paper traces the retention of vestigial 〈x〉 in six anthroponymic variants: the given name Ximena and the surnames Ximénez/Ximenes, Mexía/s, and Roxas. These forms can be attributed to the often exceptional orthography of proper nouns from a normative perspective. In the case of Ximena, a powerful resurgence of the feature is linked to robust indexicalities of 〈x〉 in Mexican society.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The evolution of Spanish 〈x〉
    • 2.1〈x〉 in vestigial variants of personal names
      • 2.1.1 Ximena
      • 2.1.2Ximénez/Ximenes
      • 2.1.3Mexía/s
      • 2.1.4Roxas
    • 2.2Socio-cultural significance of 〈x〉 in México and broader valorizations
  • 3.Methods
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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