Am I going mad here - surely the letter "x" is pronounced?

[southdevondelight]

The words I'm having trouble with are LUXURY or LUXURIOUS. Just recently I've heard quite a few people saying LUGury or LUGurious - what's this all about then? Not just people I know either - TV reporters etc and it's definitely a hard "g" sound.

Is it just me?

Shurely lugsury, not just lugury.

I haven't heard this. All of dh's family pronounce accelerate, ackZelerate however. It physically hurts to hear it.

I like the spanish "shh" pronunciation.

In spanish, natch!

Sorry, yes of course I meant to type LUGS .....

And it still bugs the hell out of me! :)

Ooh, I knew I'd think of some others - Dezember. I once knew someone who insisted absurd was pronounced obzurd. So extra zs, a whole different topic.

Eggstra, eggsaggerate - replacing xs with gs is not uncommon, is it? Never seggs though, is it?

Hmmm, I pronounce LUK-shury and lug-SHUR-ious (although the latter with a 'hard' sound, maybe more like 'szjhur' - I'm not explaining that very well, am I?).

I only pronounce LUG-shury if I'm doing Monty Python impressions.

i say luckshury.

and lugshurious.

i've just sounded it out.

luckshurious sounds wrong.