Are “Xylofon” and “xenophob” really pronounced with /ks/?

Question

Pronunciation dictionaries suggest that words beginning with "x", such as "Xylofon" and "xenophob", should be pronounced with /ks/. This sounds awkward every time I try.

How common is it for real-life dialects to change this sound to something easier? If I talked about "Xenongas", pronounced /se:nɔngas/, would I be understood?

Answer 1

Definitely we Germans pronounce those "Xs" as /ks/.

And I doubt, that I understand /se:nɔngas/ immediately.

But after a short time I would learn to understand your way to pronounce this character. Though I think it depends on your audience. I don't think it would be a great handicap in technical business talk (compared to knowing the vocabulary you are using).

Answer 2

I think I never heard a different pronounciation. It's correct, yes. After all, the letter x in itself is pronounced like iks (or ikks). Listen, for example, to the samples on dict.cc; at least for Xylophon, there's a real entry (xenophob is computer-generated).

Many people might have problems understanding what you mean if you pronounce it with just /s/, depending on the rest of the word. Xylophon may be understood because it provides enough clue as a whole.

Answer 3

Yes, x is pronounced [ks] in German regardless of its position in the word.

There is only one exception. If x means the letter X and is divided by a dash, e. g.

• X-Beine
• x-beliebig
• X-Chromosom
• x-förmig

In these cases the starting X is pronounced [ɪks].

Answer 4

Yes, they are really pronounced that way, and I cannot see anything awkward or difficult about it.

I don't know any dialect that avoids the proper pronunciation of "X".

Of course, words like "Xenongas" and "xenophob" are rarely used in dialects, but on the other hand, words that start out with "Ges-" are commonly pronouced "Ks-" in many dialects:

gesund pronouced: xund
Gesicht pronounced: xicht
Geschichte pronounced kschicht

It is unlikely that you would be understood without context and it would be just wrong, like saying "k" instead of "kr".

Answer 5

For what it's worth, I do know Germans who also have difficulty pronouncing the "x" at the beginning of a word. I agree with the other answerers that just pronouncing /s/ would not be well understandable, but I think with a /ts/ instead you'd do OK: so you could think "Zylophon".

But the best is of course to keep practising /ks/.