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I've always said the first part zeh. Am I saying it correctly?

Related to: What is the correct pronunciation of TeX and LaTeX?

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user530873
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From a TUG interview with Jonathan Kew, the original author of XeTeX:

DW: Of course, other readers and I could look at your XeTeX web site, but perhaps you can also tell us something about it here. For starters, how should I pronounce XeTeX — like Zee TeX? And why did you call it that?

JK: I don't have a strong opinion on the “correct” pronunciation, though personally I say zee-TeX. There was some discussion of this on the mailing list recently, and it was clear that the “natural” pronunciation depends on people's native language — which is fine with me.

So for English speakers, I think that 'zee-TeX' (IPA: ['zitɛk] or ['zitɛx]) is indeed the preferred form.

Why 'z' and not some other consonant?

'z' is the natural way to pronounce other words that begin with 'X' (e.g., xenon, xylophone, Xanadu, xenophobia, Xerox, xylem, to name some that most of us may know.)

Why 'zee' and not 'zeh'?

English speakers actually vary in their pronunciation of words beginning with 'xe', using either 'zee' or 'zeh' (IPA [zi] or [zɛ]). Some of this variation may be dialectal, but some speakers may in fact have both options freely. But the 'Xe' in 'XeLaTeX' cannot have the 'zeh' pronunciation. The reason for this is linguistic. Since 'tex' and 'latex' are independent words, we interpret 'xe' as a morpheme (i.e., a piece with independent meaning; that meaning being something like "UTF-8 aware flavour"). This morpheme acts as a modifier (like an adjective) to the 'latex' or 'tex' word. Because of this, it receives the main stress of the word. Now English has a general rule of prevents words ending in a vowel to contain one of the so-called 'short' vowels (/ɛ/,/ı/,/æ/,/ʌ/,/ʊ/) So since 'xe' receives stress as a word, and is a syllable that ends in a vowel, it cannot be pronounced 'zeh' and must be pronounced 'zee'.

Alan Munn
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    No, no, it's spelt XeTeX, but it's pronounced Throatwobbler Mangrove. :) – Paulo Cereda Oct 23 '15 at 20:00
  • Wait! You mean Xerox is not pronounced zeh-rocks! Great answer, and an interesting interview also. Thanks! – user530873 Oct 23 '15 at 20:35
  • @smpl Actually people vary on the pronunciation of 'xerox', so both 'zeh' and 'zee' are possible. But this is not the case for 'xelatex' because 'xe' is intuitively analyzed as a prefix (which it's not in 'xerox'.) – Alan Munn Oct 23 '15 at 21:12
  • I agree. I say [ziːtɛk] in English, but [sɛːə̯tɛk] in Norwegian. – Sverre Oct 23 '15 at 21:44
  • Is this the same reason why I can only pronounce LaTeX as "LAY- tekh"? It feels phonetically wrong to say "LAH-tekh" even though I would rather not make the connection with synthetic rubber. – musarithmia Oct 23 '15 at 22:15
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    @AndrewCashner Yes, I think that's right. The 'lah' pronunciation is a bit of an affectation due to the fact that the folk etymology of the 'la' is from Leslie Lamport and that 'la' is pronounced that way. But I think the intuition that 'la' is a morpheme in 'latex' is weaker than for the 'xe' in 'xelatex'. – Alan Munn Oct 23 '15 at 22:17
  • @AndrewCashner What's phonologically strange about [lɑtɛk], given words such as [mɑ] and [pɑ]? Also, Alan, isn't Lamport's name pronounced with [læ-]? I've never heard anyone say [lætɛk]. – Sverre Oct 24 '15 at 07:32
  • @Sverre as Canadian English speaker I don't have [ɑ] in almost anything, (Unlike American English speakers who use this vowel in words like 'pasta', 'Mazda' etc. Canadians tend to have [æ] in those words.) So yes, I say [lætɛk] not [lɑtɛk]. For American English speakers, though, you are probably correct. – Alan Munn Oct 24 '15 at 13:16
  • @Sverre I'm no linguist, but the American "a" sound that matches the Spanish "e" sound, the sound in "lay", is also used in "later", "laker", "laser", "label", etc. To change the vowel you would have to double the consonant after, "latter", "lacking", "lassy", etc. But neither sound is the "continental" a sound like in Spanish "para". Mostly I use that sound in "o" words like "lot" or in foreign words like "pasta". In "Ma" and "Pa" the sound tends more toward "maw" (same vowel as "Mall"). "Lamtex" would sound like Lamport's name, otherwise there's no way to prompt me to say "la" as in "Lamp." – musarithmia Oct 24 '15 at 15:27
  • @AndrewCashner I'm surprised by your claim that the vowel in your "Pa" is different from the vowel in "pasta". I've never noticed such a difference. But I'm still not sure why it would be the case that you find it "phonetically wrong" to use the vowel you use in "pasta" in "latex" (which, after all, is how a lot of Americans do say it). – Sverre Oct 24 '15 at 15:32
  • Am I really the only one who pronounces it as χέτέχ? – yo' Oct 25 '15 at 21:58
  • @yo' Yes. . . . – Alan Munn Oct 25 '15 at 22:05
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    French people seem to pronounce it 'Gzeh-Lah-Tek'. Is there anyone else who pronounces it that way? – ienissei Oct 26 '15 at 00:57
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    I am probably butchering it but I pronounce XeTeX in sort of hybrid form as [ksetex] (IPA). – wilx Sep 28 '16 at 08:29
  • @yo' If that sounds like ke-tek then probably no, I was wondering the same. – 0fnt Apr 26 '19 at 05:30
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    @0fnt well, no, I'm not a native English speaker, so I know how to make the sound of χ :-) in IPA it would be something like [xetɛx]. – yo' Apr 26 '19 at 08:07