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When I went to school many moons ago and started out learning English, one of the first rules my teacher taught me was the one about Cecilia's Bicycle. That is to say that C is pronunced as S before E, I and Y but as K before any other wovel (Whis is why Canada is pronounced Kanada, @Balboos  ).
So Celtic OUGHT to be pronounced Seltic. But I REALLY don't like that. Celtic is connected to the Celts who as mentioned in Peter's wikipedia link[^] also can be written Kelts, and in that case of course pronounced accordingly.
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
modified 13-Apr-16 2:36am.
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As spelling/pronunciation rules go, most of them being dogged with more exceptions than examples, Cecilia's Bicycle is pretty robust, mainly because it seems to have been applied with the heavy hand of rigidity against all logic by the Edinburgh mob that are mostly responsible for all the stupid rules of grammar and orthography that we now consider standard. There is, for example, no brief for pronouncing Greek rooted words like cephalopod and Cerberus with the soft c because it is a transliteration of kappa which is indisputably hard; and yet we do.
Obvious exceptions which somehow escaped 'correction' are cello (Italian root) and ceilidh (Gaelic). A fun afternoon might be spent finding others.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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I just thought it was another flaw in french - like stopping at sixty.
(or is that cixty?)
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I've always said seltic too - damn!
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Maximilien wrote: It is hard to change habits.
Surely you must do laundry at some point? 
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde
Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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Maximilien wrote: It is hard to change habits.
I didn't know that you were a munk??? How many habits[^] are you allowed to have, and are there really rules for how often you have to change them? 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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Of course. The Rules of the Benedictine Order for example require ...
Quote: clothing is to be adequate and suited to the climate and locality, at the discretion of the abbot. It must be as plain and cheap as is consistent with due economy. Each monk is to have a change of clothes to allow for washing, and when travelling is to have clothes of better quality. Old clothes are to be given to the poor.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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I would say that the Keltic language gave birth to the football club Seltic.
However a quick Google suggests that it was once Keltic, became Seltic through common usage a long time ago and has become Keltic again in recent years through pretentious use.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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The football club is "Selltick"
Of or pertaining to the Celts as a people or race is "Keltic"
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Keltic.
Because I'm from Boston and I don't follow fashion.
modified 12-Apr-16 16:00pm.
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Thanks, Cliff.
(Claven, not Original)
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Keltic because that was what the teacher said it was.
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I've always said Keltic, because in Dutch we speak of the Kelts when talking about Celts.
Then I heard people use Seltic and I was like "what?" and they're like "yeah, it's the sports club" and I'm like "what?"
I always knew these sporting types were more muscle than brain (I say that to justify my lack of exercise, mostly), but why the hell can't they pronounce Celtic correctly? And that for people who use the word in their team name!
And I've always used either in the context of Celts, the people and their language, or in the context of Celtic Frost, the band[^]. Never in the context of sports 
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Sander Rossel wrote: why the hell can't they pronounce Celtic correctly?
They are pronouncing it correctly, just as I pronounce Ajax differently when it's the Greek hero and not the football club even though, there being no J in Greek, the latter is actually the more proper pronunciation.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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9082365 wrote: They are pronouncing it correctly
That's srazy talk!
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Sander Rossel wrote: That's srazy talk!
Now you're just being cilly! I prescribe a trip to Cirencester!
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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/K/eltic - besides learning it like this in English class the German word is also pronounced (and written) with a hard K, so it feels doubly right.
If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't. — Lyall Watson
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Sascha Lefèvre wrote: the German word
Ah, but therein lies the problem.
The Celts were all over Europe and (predominantly) Northern UK, and even spread further East (i.e. into places further East than Russia, which is part of Europe*), so their language had more dialects than there are active languages, today.
* I had to add that clarification, because it appears that 98.37625% of Americans are unaware that Rusiia is, and always has been, part of Europe
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: 98.37625% of Americans are unaware that Rusiia is, and always has been, part of Europe
Politically sure but geographically 3/4 of Russia is in Asia.
That's important when you're aiming an ICBM... 
There are two types of people in this world: those that pronounce GIF with a soft G, and those who do not deserve to speak words, ever.
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Ah, that's the thing. There were Asian parts of the USSR, but Russia itself is European.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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No, mother Russia herself is 3/4 Asian (geographically). Google it.
There are two types of people in this world: those that pronounce GIF with a soft G, and those who do not deserve to speak words, ever.
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heh. Google is American.
I've still got atlases given to me when I was a kid, which were published before the USSR existed. Russia wasn't the huge place it is now, since the dissolution of the USSR.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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As far as I know the Urals are used as the delineation between Europe and Asia.
West of Urals = Europe
East of Urals = Asia
Since the time of the first Tsars (1500's) Russia has extended well east of the Urals and by the mid-1600's all the way to the Pacific. Nearly all of the Soviet expansion was west and southwest
There are two types of people in this world: those that pronounce GIF with a soft G, and those who do not deserve to speak words, ever.
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That's a very US-ian viewpoint.
Unfortunately, there are no lines between Europe and Asia except the political ones, and try asking a Russian if he's Asian.
Mind you, try asking a non-Texan American which continent Mexico is on, and he'll probably get it wrong.
I'm absolute cr@p at geography, but the average American beats me hands down.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: That's a very US-ian viewpoint.
I'm an American so that would be normal.
Mark_Wallace wrote: Unfortunately, there are no lines between Europe and Asia except the political ones
Again an uninformed response. Geologists and cartographers beg to differ with you.
Mark_Wallace wrote: Mind you, try asking a non-Texan American which continent Mexico is on, and he'll probably get it wrong.
I'm absolute cr@p at geography, but the average American beats me hands down.
I love when you paint your insults with such a broad brush. It makes you look silly and pathetic all at the same time. Why are you so anti-American?
There are two types of people in this world: those that pronounce GIF with a soft G, and those who do not deserve to speak words, ever.
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