In Spanish, it's "ajolote".

In the Spanish of the 1490s and early 1500s, there was a "SH" sound, spelled with X, the same way there is today in other Iberian languages like Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, or Basque. They got to Mexico and wrote many indigenous words with "SH" sounds (like "Mexico" and "axolotl") with X. Shortly after this, the pronunciation shifted to the modern Spanish J sound (which in much of the Spanish speaking world is like the CH in loch, but in some countries is like an H sound).

Are you sure that x is an ecks and not a chi that straightened up a bit?

The thing about script and type is they only really work by prior agreement.

There is a set of marks on the page that we all agree on "is" an axolotl. How we choose to say that out loud is up to the individual. On the other hand, if we were to converse with you directly ... vocally ... then you could tell us how you say the name and if we were convinced that you were at least Mexican, we might follow your lead.

Script, type and sounds rarely match up precisely, ever.

I live in a town called Yeovil (Somerset, UK). I have a mug with at least 65 different spellings of the name over the last ~1900 odd years. It started off as Gifle "bend in the river" in a Saxon language. We have had a "great vowel shift" in "english" and three different varieties of "english" noted since then, just in these parts, let alone elsewhere.

The place name was spelt as Evil or Euil for a while! No-one batted an eyelid because the concept of the grammar nazi was a long way in the future and spelling was pretty random in general. Ivel, Ivol, Givelle and many more have been documented.

Please record how you say the name and make it available. Fiddling with text will never cut it.

I have a feeling you're fighting a losing battle here

Well most non nahuatl speaking mexicans simply call them by the spanish traduction, ajolote.

If you want it to be pronounced "sh", just write it "sh".

And "valet" is supposed to rhyme with "ballot" not "ballet" but you'll still sound like an idiot if you say "take your car to the val-it"

Is there a word for foreign loan words that have their pronounciation changed?

I feel like axolotl fits in that category as it’s a commonly known animal in the English speaking world, that has a common pronounciation remarkedly different from the language it came from.

Loan words going from English -> Asian languages like Thai and Japanese such as “beer” becoming “beeru” fit the same vein.

Or like Meshico

Given the damage to the abdomen, we might infer it was axed a little.

That’s like telling the Japanese that “cutlet” is not pronounced “katsu.” It ain’t gonna change. Or even having southerners pronounce squirrel with two sellable [autocorrect : syllables] Good luck with that!

[dead]

"Shocolate"? Who says it like that?