French : x or ks ?

Hello,

I got used to writing the x (=ks) sound using a modified s in French DJS. Only today I came across the word désaxé, which is surprisingly written with a K followed by an S, instead of the usual modified S that is to be found in fixé, taxé, détaxé, etc. So why the exception for axe and désaxé, which contain the exact same syllable as in taxe and détaxé ?

Thank you.


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16 comments Add yours
  1. Hello Aymeric,
    I had a look into the Gregg Anniversary Dictionary and ‘axis’ is written ‘a-k-ss’…
    My guess is that the words you talk about have been made based on this word.
    Another guess is that this word — axis — has been made this way because the word is so short that writing it following exactly the rule would have been a challenge.
    🙂

  2. For "axis," I can imagine that writing an outline with s-ss might have been an issue for legibility, so maybe that's why they elected to go with a-k-ss. Then maybe they carried that over to French DJS as Christine suggests.

  3. Since the word starts with a circle vowel, it would be hard to slant the right s to make it legible as an x, so the k-s spelling is preferred as it is more legible. Notice that this does not apply to ex-, because that is always written as e-s (without slanting the s).

  4. Hi Carlos, today I bumped into connexe and connexion.

    Connexe is written with the modified s, but connection is written with k-s. Yet to me it looks like it would be simple to write the "tion" ending just below the modified s. So why this new exception?

    Thanks!

    1. I don't have the answer to your question but it might be of interest to note that 'connexe' doesn't exist in English while 'connexion' exists and is written 'connection'.
      In English Anniversary, it is written: 'k-e-k-tion'.

      1. Actually, the word "connex" is also an English word, meaning "to connect" or "connected" but it's hardly used, if ever. Not to be confused with the CONEX box, the metal box that is used in the military to ship supplies around (sometimes people spell it as "connex" too).

          1. No, no need to be sorry — that word is hardly used nowadays! English has a huge lexicon, over a million words, and dictionaries only show about half of them, or less. French and Spanish have about 100,000 words. On the other hand, Portuguese has about half a million words too: Portuguese use lots of words that are French cognates, Arabic loans (usually words that start with al- or az-), and also quite a few words from old Spanish (that are considered obsolete in modern Spanish).

            I'm surprised as to how many words I think don't exist in English, when in fact they do but are not used.

            1. I know that the English speakers have much more words at their disposal than the French and that some words in English don't have an equivalent in French and must be translated by a phrase.
              It looks like the English language has particularly worked like a sticky paper to acquire all kinds of words through the ages… 🙂

          2. Well, connex is new to me. You've helped me to increase my vocabulary (albeit in a probably useless way). For what it's worth, The Oxford English Dictionary has all sorts of obsolete words. My favorites are the ones that begin with wl, like wlonk and wlat.

    2. This is another case in which they kept the DJS English outline for -xion ending in almost all words. The same issue happens with complexion, inflexion, and réflexion, etc. The only word that is written with x-tion is annexion, because the English equivalent is "annexation."

      My view? I don't like either outline, to be honest! I would write it them all as in Spanish Gregg, with the -tion only ending (no k, no x, that is, extend the rule in paragraph 62 to cover -xion as well.) So for example, conexión (connexion in French) is written k-n-e-tion, anexión (annexion) as a-n-e-tion, etc. There's hardly any difference in pronunciation between the French and the Spanish word (the x is pronounced in both languages), but it's much easier and faster to write it without the intervening k or x, and you’ll be able to easily transcribe them.

      1. Perfect solution Carlos! It would also prevent inconsistency in the rule to apply, and inconsistencies in a system that is so hard to learn are something I would really hope to avoid as much as possible….

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