ApSIC Tools Weblog

A few of you have asked us how we pronounce “Xbench” at ApSIC, because users seem to pronounce it in very different ways.

Well, we’ve just done an internal poll at ApSIC on Xbench phonetics and discovered that Xbench pronunciation actually depends on language and location:

• When we speak English, we say [ɛks]-bench.
• When we speak Catalan or Spanish at ApSIC, we normally say [ɪks]-bench, because “ics” is the name of the letter X in Catalan.
• When we speak Spanish outside of ApSIC, we normally say [ɛkɪs]-bench, because “equis” is the name of the letter X in Spanish.

So, although the X in Xbench has its origins in the transformation translate->Xlate, we never pronounced it as “trans-bench”. Also, we never pronounced it as “cross-bench”, although it seems a very common pronunciation in English-speaking countries.

That said, you are welcome to continue to pronounce it how you prefer. Our ultimate goal is that you like using Xbench, so we are kind of flexible on how you wish to pronounce it!