Well, first of all LaTeX is derived from TeX. And the X isn't an x but the Greek letter X whose pronunciation seems to depend on Greek epoch and also geographic preferences. The final say would have Donald Knuth. I think he said it's like the Ch in (Happy) Chanukka ...

And again, a case where the creator could have done everyone a favor and not given it an obscure name that only an academic (and probably not many of those) would be able to pronounce correctly.

I just… can’t. It’s lay-teks to me. I have to deal with non-technical people and having every conversation about a LaTeX feature turn into a “well, actually” discussion of Ancient Greek sounds like hell for all of us.

That’s one controversy that shouldn’t be. Quoth Knuth (The TeXbook, chapter 1, “The name of the game”):

> Insiders pronounce the χ of TeX as a Greek chi, not as an ‘x’, so that TeX rhymes with the word blecchhh. It’s the ‘ch’ sound in Scottish words like loch or German words like ach; it’s a Spanish ‘j’ and a Russian ‘kh’. When you say it correctly to your computer, the terminal may become slightly moist.

> TeX rhymes with the word blecchhh

That's the Mad Magazine Knuth speaking: https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-enduring-art-of-computer-p...

the controversy isnt `ck` vs `x`, it's LAH-tek vs LAY-tek vs lah-TEK vs lay-TEK

I would always pronounce it as in Scottish Loch, but I guess that is natural if you are German.