Talk:Celtic

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The word Celtic in English actually comes from the French Celtique and the Latin Celticus - not the Greek Keltoi. While either pronunciation is technically acceptable, the exclusion of the pronunciation sĕlʹtĭk is a disservice as it does not show all of the valid pronunciations. — This unsigned comment was added by Subjugator (talk • contribs).

Pronunciation

Is there any evidence for UK usage of the /s/ pronunciation for things other than sports teams? Anyone I've heard use that (very infrequently) has been corrected (not by me) and informed that only the Glaswegian football team is /sɛltɪk/ and everything else is /kɛltɪk/. Thryduulf (talk) 21:58, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

The /s/ pronunciation is simply dated, an archaism conserved only in a few proper names – it was the common pronunciation until the mid-19th century, see Wikipedia for a more detailed explanation, to which I can add that the /k/ pronunciation is probably modeled after the pronunciation of "c" in Irish and Welsh, which is always hard, even before front vowels like "e". For clarity, older texts sometimes write "Keltic". However, historically speaking, the /s/ pronunciation is not incorrect by any means, it is simply expected according to the rules of English spelling (cf. cellar, celery, celt) – it's the /k/ pronunciation which is ultimately irregular and artificial. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 16:14, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

@Florian Blaschke I've added some usage notes based on your observations, please correct or expand if necessary. – Jberkel 17:43, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

It is always pronounced " Keltic". "Celtic" is an Americanism. — This unsigned comment was added by 66.30.55.165 (talk).

I have learnt that both pronunciations, "seltik" and "keltik", are correct, although "keltik" is the most common. However, I think it shall be more correct to pronounce the first C as an S rather than as a K, 'cause the C is followed by an E which is a soft vowel, and according to the pronunciation rule, the letter C shall always be pronounced as S if it's followed by a soft vowel and as K if it's followed by a hard vowel or a consonant.

This reminds me a little of Korea. The normal spelling of Korea is with K, but both the K- and the C-spelling are correct. 213.65.211.63 09:54, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

Could we make a list of teams that use the /s/ pronunciation? Im an American and well familiar with the Boston Celtics, so I presume any others using that pronunciation must be on the list at w:Celtic#Sports. w:Celtic F.C. seems to be one other example. The others on the list at w:Celtic#Sports dont have pronunciations listed, however. —Soap— 16:00, 21 August 2020 (UTC)

How is "Celtic" pronounced in Spanish? I think it shall be pronounced "séltica" and not "kéltica", then why is it normally pronounced "Keltik" rather than "Seltik" in English? If it is normally pronounced "Keltik", I think it shall be written with K rather than C in the beginning. 213.65.211.63 11:49, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

All languages with a hard-C/soft-C distinction pronounce this word with the soft C, as is expected from the following E. That's e.g. French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and also formerly English. The "soft" pronunciation is from Latin, the "hard" pronunciation is from Ancient Greek. So they're both justified. The only problem really is that English uses the Latin spelling with the Greek pronunciation. Ideally one would spell "Celtic" for /sɛltɪk/ and "Keltic" for /kɛltɪk/. 88.64.225.1 21:37, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Classical Latin would have pronounced it with a /k/, for the record. Tharthan (talk) 01:49, 26 June 2021 (UTC)