Q: How do you pronounce "Acaxee?"
A: Good question. Unfortunately, the answer is no one knows for sure. The Acaxee language has not been spoken since the 1600's, and the one Jesuit grammar of the language has been lost.
We can make some good guesses though. According to Spanish spelling conventions in Mexico during the 16th and 17th centuries, we would expect a word the Spanish wrote down as "Acaxee" to be pronounced either ah-kah-shay, ah-kah-hay, or ah-kah-jay (with a raspy "j" as in "jalapeño.) The letter "x" was used to represent all three of these sounds at that time.
However, if we look through other Spanish texts, we can see the name was sometimes spelled Acage or Acajee. Since "g" and "j" can both be pronounced as either "h" or the raspy "j" sound, but never as "sh," we can rule that out.
And finally, it is believed that Acaxee was a Taracahitic language, similar to Mayo or Yaqui. Neither of those languages has any j-as-in-jalapeño sound, but they do both have an h-as-in-hay sound. It is a reasonable guess that Acaxee would have been similar.
Therefore, our best guess is that Acaxee was probably pronounced ah-kah-hay.
Hope that helps, have a good day!
Further reading:
Acaxee language
