Me, rubbing my fingers across the metal bars of the instrument: “This isn’t a xylophone, you fool! It’s a stinking glockenspiel!”
The word “xylophone” comes from the Ancient Greek ξύλον (xúlon) meaning “wood” and φωνή (phōnḗ) meaning “sound” or “voice.”
So this instrument with metal bars that you hit with a hammer to produce sound is called a…?
That’s right! A “glockenspiel!”
(I stole this from someone else on the internet.)
Possibly overrepresented on a couple Frank Zappa albums…
Possibly overrepresentedProminently featured on a couple Frank Zappa albums…Kidding aside, it’s all a matter of taste! Luckily with Zappa there are tons of flavors to choose from 😆
I know that’s right. We all fuckin love Ruth!
In cartoons and music geared toward toddlers, I agree.
Where’s the sick-ass xylophone solos in heavy metal though?
I see someone’s a marimba fan.
Marimba! Marimba!!
They just have a fuller sound. Marimba master race!
You can’t resist a 5 octave rosewood marimba.
I can’t afford one either!
No it’s not enough.
Ita a great sound, it’s woody, it’s haunting it’s under-utilised in rock music.
Well, what other word do you use to teach a kid the alphabet? Xenophoe? Xenomorph?
Xolo - hairless Mexican dog
Xenops - small bird
(I don’t use X-Ray because saying the letter X doesn’t make either of the letter’s major phonetic sounds.)
saying the letter X doesn’t make either of the letter’s major phonetic sounds
Excuse me?
No, i think i get it but difficult to explain.
Say X, X, X in a row
Then say
Xylo , Xen, Xono
The Raw letter has different phonet-x to how it’s often applied.
When were talking about teaching kids the alphabet we need to train both individual and applied letters
I do realize that this might be very cultural and language dependent but i am pretty sure we’re talking plain english.
When were talking about teaching kids the alphabet we need to train both individual and applied letters
This is only slightly related but I once met a young (USAmerican) adult who thought the stripy horse animal’s name was pronounced zed-bra in British English and it was really hard to convince her otherwise. In her mind zebra was strongly connected to Z-bra, so of course if someone was to pronounce the letter “zed” it would turn into “zed-bra” and not just into “zeh-bra”.
X, spoken as a letter = ecks
Hard phonetic sound = zz, same as the letter Z (almost always at the beginning of a word. Xylophone)
Soft phonetic sound = ksk (never at the beginning of a word. Box, oxen)
(disclaimer: American English, ymmv.)
X, spoken as a letter ecks
Or ex
By this definition, Xolo wouldn’t fit because the x in Xolo is somewhere between sh- and ch-. It’s a Nahuatl word and many (if not all) Xs are sh-/ch-.
Sorry for being pedantic.
Don’t be sorry, you’re not pedantic enough.
The Nahuatl word Xoloitzcuintle is something the vast majority of English-speaking Americans can’t read, let alone spell or pronounce correctly. So the more digestible word Xolo was adopted to identify Mexican hairless dogs (hard X, hard O, L, hard O).
As an English speaking American I can confirm. I started pronouncing it in my head then kinda gave up cus I haven’t had enough coffee yet
And also its Xoloitzcuintle. A bit of a mouth full for a 6 year old. Also, like you said a nahuatl word and not English.
xoloitzcuintle is underrepresented though
To be fair, most English words aren’t even really English
Most words used in normal, day-to-day conversations are English.
X-ray? X, Professor? Xerox?
xenophobe
That way you can teach the concepts of bigotry and tolerance from a young age.
I don’t know, a 5 year old might think that’s a cool word and say they want to be xenophobe when they grow up.
Ok sure but I grew up in the 90s and ended up becoming a xylophone and Im not sure that’s any better.
See, this way we can spot them earlier. Way too many of them go on to live their dream—when they could have had their course adjusted at the beginning.
Xenon? Xylem? Xenobiology? Xanthoma? Xylocarp? Xiphoid? Xerosis? Xyster? The scrabble favorites xi and xu?
There’s loads of cool words that begin with x
Xylophone: fun, colorful, easy for a kid to remember as a cute little instrument
Xenon: An inert gas used in… MRI scans, I think?
X-ray is probably the only other ‘X’ word with more real-world representation than xylophone, and as pointed out above, that’s not quite representative of how the letter is used phonetically in the rest of the language.
Xylem is a mojor component of almost all the plants you see. I’m not sure how much more real-world representation you can get…
By “real-world representation”, I mean “how often the word is actually used in the real world.” There are hundreds of trillions of neutrinos passing through you all the time, but I’d still think “nest” is a better word for kids.
Xanthan gum
Xenomorph, gotta teach them young that sometimes it’s best to just nuke the whole thing from orbit.
X-TREME
Big xylophone is gerrymandering the alphabet.
Someone going to pop a glockenspiel
Yeah, vibraphones is where it’s at!
It was always an exciting day in band when we got to turn the vibrophone resonator fans on.
Tortoise was the first group i heard using them, led me get into some of vibraphonist Cal Tjader’s material and some lesser known vibraphone groups/artists (though Tortoise is much more my speed) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EPqmgY6WTVw
Though she often played marimba, Frank Zappa’s percussionist Ruth Underwood was a monster with the mallets as well… Again not vibraphones in this particular example but anyone who digs them may want to see this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e7Sq0chFjps
Xylophobe
Xerces is a nice alternative
anti-xylophilism
xylopathia
As a father of toddlers learning ABCs, I agree. I’ve seen some weird side steps, like X-ray Fish for an animal themed one, or Xerox— a company name. Or just straight up Fox because they couldn’t think of Xylophone or any other X words.
But, what’s the age appropriate alternative?
Mr X to the Z Xzibit
X formerly known as Twitter?
Xitter!
You could teach them about the wonderful sport of xare
but then you’d have to explain all the basque pelota sportsXavier, Charles
