2609: Axolotls and Don Quixote Feb 5, 2022

The word 'axolotl', the name for a type of Mexican salamander, was adopted into English in the 18th century from the Nahuatl word 'atl' (water) and 'xolotl' (servant). This is fairly strange orthographically, as English tends to take spelling not from Nahuatl but from Spanish, such as in 'coyote' from 'coyotl' or 'chayote'—a type of tropical fruit—from the Nahuatl 'chayotli'. In Spanish, the name for the salamander is 'ajolote', but keep in mind also that Spanish used to use X in its orthography for the sound now represented with J, and 'axolotl' was adopted earlier than the other words. This is also why in English the book character is 'Don Quixote' but in Spanish it is 'Don Quijote'.