Mekkiko

[Sevly]

I read a book recently in which the spelling Mekkiko was used to show that an English speaker was pronouncing "Mexico" as it is in Spanish, i.e. [ˈmexiko]. I found this very odd, as I would have expected Mehiko or something like that, but as I started pronouncing it I realized that in fast speech, but only when I geminated the [k], I have a tendency to fricativize the geminate plosive producing [mekːiko] -> [mexiko]. And that, of course, is the actual pronunciation, as opposed to the misconceived [mehiko] that comes most easily to most English speakers.

Has anyone else seen this before?

[linguoboy]

Are you sure the spelling wasn't (or wasn't intended to be) "Mekhiko"?

[Tropylium⁺]

Or they were describing a /mɛkɪko/ pronunciation and used <kk> to avoid suggesting /miːkɪko/? Still, "Meckiko" might've been more expected then…

[Salmoneus]

No, because <ck> is extremely anglo-saxon, and wouldn't normally be used in clearly foreign words.

[Sevly]

Are you sure the spelling wasn't (or wasn't intended to be) "Mekhiko"?

Well, no clue about what it was intended to be, but I'm sure that it was printed as "Mekkiko". I remember rechecking it, cause I was quite taken aback.

[jatzail]

in italian you can use Mekico (Mechico) as joke pronounce.

[vec]

Someone probably just felt that /k/ and /x/ sounded the same.

[Noriega]

I read a book recently

What book? How old? What is the situation in which the spelling Mekkiko is used?

[Sevly]

I read a book recently

What book? How old? What is the situation in which the spelling Mekkiko is used?

Grilling me, huh. Well, it was in The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis, published in 2007. It's been a month or so since I read it, so I don't remember that many details about the situation since it was simply a passing reference, but the narrator/protagonist-sidekick is basically making fun of a character he finds snobby, the latter being the kind who would pronounce 'champagne' as [ʃɑ̃paɲ] and such.