Question for the Canadians

[yendi]

As mentioned in the last post, I listened to language-oriented podcasts en route to work today. One of these was an episode of PRI's The World in Words in which Patrick Cox interviewed Julie Barlow, co-author of The Story of Spanish.

It was a great interview overall (and one that absolutely sold me on the book, as there's a history of Spanish that makes French seem dull, frankly), but at one point, Barlow noted the influence of "Celtic" words, and pronounced that word with a soft C, like one might when talking about the Boston basketball team.

That's something that would annoy me from anyone, and doubly so from a linguist, but I also know, as someone who stumbles around spoken words all the time, that it's easy to mess up. But neither she nor Patrick seemed bothered by it, so I'm wondering: are there parts of the world (specifically parts of Canada*) where this is the accepted pronunciation?

Normally, I chalk this up to a reader's vocabulary (someone who's seen the word in print, but never heard it uttered), but I doubt that's the case here.

(Aside: If you like language podcasts, both the aforementioned Lexicon Valley and PRI's The World in Words are worth listening to.)

*Per her Wikipedia page, Barlow is from Hamilton, Ontario

Comments

[clawfoot.livejournal.com]

I'm in southwestern Ontario, and we've always pronounced it with a hard 'c'. I always wondered where the pronunciation for the soft-'c' Boston Celtics came from, or if it meant something different than what I knew it to mean.

[luis-mw.livejournal.com]

I've always pronounced it and heard it pronounced as Ketlic, save for the name of the Glasgow soccer team, which is Seltic

Interesting article here though... trying to follow up on the web articles referenced in the header

http://medievalscotland.org/postings/kelticseltic.shtml

[yendi]

I think it comes from people just plain mispronouncing the word. :-)

[yendi]

Hunh. I didn't know there was another athletic team that used that pronunciation.

Love the link, though, if only as an argument against prescriptivism.

[sterling-raptor.livejournal.com]

From learning Latin back in the day, the "C" would have been soft, so when the tribes got named from Ketoi to Celts, the latin readers would have switched from "k" to "c". I have no idea why the sports teams would have adopted the "C" other than maybe to differentiate themselves from the culture?

[spoothbrush.livejournal.com]

I can't remember how it was pronounced in the linguistics class I took at McGill, but I know that before I was there I was solidly in the "keltic" camp, and afterward I used the soft C more often, so that may be the source. (Though whether that's a McGill or a French thing I can not even vaguely speculate on).

[alexmegami]

Same area and I had the same thought. (I also have this thought with a lot of American cities with French names...)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Ottawa, here. And it's pretty much evenly divided between usages, and the deciding factor is "does this person care about sports?"

If you watch basketball, or you talk about sports with basketball fans regularly, you pronounce it incorrectly, like the Boston Celtics do.
If you don't watch basketball or talk about sports regularly, you pronounce it correctly, they way people discussing Celts do.

[phantom_wolfboy]

Hard 'C', and I've lived both south of and north of Hamilton.

To be honest, though, "How do you pronounce 'Celtic'" isn't a question that comes up in conversation very often.

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

I grew up and went to school an hour away from Boston (in northern RI). Until I got to college, I never heard "Celtic" (in any context) pronounced with the hard-C.

[raidingparty.livejournal.com]

Don't forget about Houston Mill!

[natf.livejournal.com]

I know you are talking about Canadian pronunciation but as a Brit I am used to the Scottish Celtic language being pronounced similar to Seltic (the same as the Celtic city is pronounced) and the Irish Celtic being pronounced as Keltic. Yes, bot languages are spelled the same. No the languages are not the same. Where is also the Welsh language which, like French, has its root in the old Celtic (Keltic). From what I remember. Which I may be mis-remembering.

[natf.livejournal.com]

Ooooo more Kiki!

[aedifica]

Gratuitous Kiki post. :-D