Which is the correct way to pronounce Celtic?
Furthermore, aside from those two team names with the soft ‘c’ pronunciation, everyone in Ireland and (to the best of my knowledge) Scotland pronounces Celtic with a hard ‘C’ (Keltic) in every other situation. Ever. A 40-year-old Irish dude who’s kind of heard/used the word a lot over the years. 😉
Which is the correct pronunciation, Keltic or Seltic?
The Derivation Argument and Celtic Pronunciation There are some who argue that “keltic” is the “correct” pronunciation because both Irish and Welsh use the letter C to indicate the sound represented by the letter K in English. This is a spurious argument since the ancient Celts did not refer to themselves as “Celts.”
What’s the soft sound in the word Celtic?
The soft “c” sound is usually reserved for sports teams now, like the Boston Celtics. Be it in the pub or in the halls of academia, whenever the topic of Irish culture, language, music, literature—basically, anything Irish—is brought up, the words Celt and Celtic are bound to be heard.
Why are there two ways to say Celt?
The pronunciation \\KELT\\ started being heard as early as the 18th century, which, in time, ushered in the variant spelling Kelt. The variants were introduced by language and history academics who believed that the pronunciation of Celt should reflect the initial \\k\\ sound in the ancient Greek Keltoi and the Classical Latin Celtae.
Which is the correct pronunciation Celtic or Burchfield?
Burchfield is referring to the Scottish Celtic Football Club, founded in 1887. In America, there is basketball’s Boston Celtics, founded in 1946, whose name is also pronounced with an initial \\s\\. The European away support that Celtic enjoys is phenomenal.
Burchfield, 1996: “Except for the football club Celtic (in Glasgow), which is pronounced /’seltɪk/, both Celt and Celtic are pronounced with initial /k/ in standard English.” Burchfield doesn’t mention the Boston Celtics, and that’s not his only oversimplification.
Why are there two ways to say Celtics?
While the early pronunciation was with an /s/ sound, reflecting its nearest origin in French, the modern standard is a hard “c” sound like /k/. This is because language historians desired the word to better reflect its Greek and Classical Latin origins. The soft “c” sound is usually reserved for sports teams now, like the Boston Celtics.