Talk:Pronunciation of Celtic

The "Celtic or Seltic?" link to The Guardian has rotted. I am not sure that the article is available any more.


 * Yeh, it was a second-rate article anyway. --Doric Loon 10:58, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

C(s)elt or C(k)elt
I'll be telling you that we are tired of our heritage as C(s)elts trying to be changed to name us after a garment worn by only the Scots, namely the kilt.
 * it is most definitely pronounced Keltic

I was taught that Celtic is usually pronounced as Keltic. However under English rules a hard G is followed cy a soft C hence Glasgow Celtic (/s/). Note a similar rule is used for a provincial Irish newspaper called The Anglo Celt (/s). I cannot explain Boston Celtic, unless it was called after the Glasgow soccer team, hence the pronunciation. Given the strong Irish connection in Boston this is very plausible. 86.42.7.192 22:13, 23 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Nice story. This is a good example of people trying to rationalise linguistic phenomena without understanding the linguistics behind it.  A dissimmilation of /c/ to /g/ resulting in the shift /c/ > /s/?  A new one on me.  Certainly not a standard English rule, or else we would have to pronounce gas as /gak/.  Read the article - the Celtic phenomenon is part of a bigger picture which makes perfect sense without this.  --Doric Loon 07:54, 24 December 2006 (UTC)


 * "it is most definitely pronounced Keltic" Statements like this are exemplary of the strange dogmatism that has infected this word...you really don't find that many words where people get all huffy if you don't pronounce it their way.

Poissonally, I will always say "keltik" if it's spelled with a K-, and "seltik" if it's spelled with a C-. I like to keep things simple and uphold tradition (that means "traditional tradition", not "trendy tradition", if you get my drift. Jakob37 17:01, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

You are free to pronounce it any way you want. This article is about charting the trend, not prescribing what anyone must do. --Doric Loon 21:35, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I was merely noting, and not inadvertently, that there seems to be some strange emotional fervor attached to "the trend" -- I have actually been harshly criticised for --quite unintentionally -- pronouncing it as "seltik", which is strange because Americans do not usually openly criticise someone else about their pronunciation... Jakob37 14:23, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

The ultimate hypocrisy!

Proposed merge
User:Dbachmann proposed merging this into Celts (name); however, since it is a redirect to Names of the Celts I presume that is what he wants to merge with. I agree with the merge, since this article is not easily found, and the material could be well integrated with other material on the use of the word. However I would want to point out that the article we are merging to already has some misinformation on this topic - it says the English pronunciation with /s/ is a French influence, which is certainly wrong. The explanation in THIS article is better, and should be kept more or less intact as a sub-section at its new home, other material there being brought into line with it. --Doric Loon (talk) 12:11, 9 December 2007 (UTC)


 * I also agree. Anyone want to begin?--Cúchullain t/ c 18:52, 12 December 2007 (UTC)