# Proper Pronunciation of 'Celtic'. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 16, 2019, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533 "2019-11-16T08:26:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/1 "2019-11-16T08:26:20Z")
I wondered for some time, but I guess I was afraid to ask anyone. The proper noun Celtic. How do you pronounce it? I’ve heard /SEL-tic/ and /KEL-tic/. Actual Celtic people (from other countries, if that helps) tend to pronounce it Keltic. But are both valid? So please offer support for your claim too. Thank you in advance for your helpful replies:). :):):)🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/2 "2019-11-16T08:38:38Z")
Sell-tic if you mean the football club Kell-tic all the other times (no, I don’t actually know why…) ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/3 "2019-11-16T11:52:00Z")
‘C’ was pronounced as ‘K’ in Latin. (The Latin alphabet had a separate ‘K’ but it was rarely used.) Many of those Cs came to be pronounced as S in English (under the influence of French?), e.g. ‘century,’ but ‘Celtic’ resisted that change. Many old texts avoid the problem by writing ‘Keltic’ but this spelling has fallen into disuse. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/4 "2019-11-16T12:19:57Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Sell-tic if you mean the football club Ahem, _basketball_ team. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/5 "2019-11-16T12:24:18Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Ahem, _basketball_ team. Also, the football team that predates the basketball team by nearly sixty years. In a rather more historically Celtic part of the world than Boston, MA. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/6 "2019-11-16T12:50:17Z")
Up to the early 20th century _Seltic_ was was the standard English pronunciation. The football club was founded in the 19th century, and the pronunciation has stayed the same. The ‘English’ pronunciation of Latin (greatly influenced by French) made all C’s soft, so Caesar -\> Seesar Cicero -\> Sisero Celtae -\> Seltee In the early 20th century, the restored classical pronunciation of Latin started to be taught, with the C’s hard - equivalent to K’s. The ancient Romans and Greeks pronounced _Celtae_ (the name of the tribal/ethnological group) with a hard C, Kelt-ai. At the same time, scholars working with Celtic mythology, history, languages, culture, etc. started to use the hard C as being more correct. It’s pronounced with a hard C in Celtic languages like [Irish](https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/ceilteach) and [Welsh](https://forvo.com/word/celtaidd/). But the older English pronunciation with a soft C is still around to some extent. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/7 "2019-11-16T13:52:38Z")
A useful mnemonic is “do they sell tix?” If so then pronounce it sell-tik. Otherwise, keltik. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/8 "2019-11-16T13:57:18Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Also, the football team that predates the basketball team by nearly sixty years. In a rather more historically Celtic part of the world than Boston, MA. Excuuuuse me! I’ll show myself out. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/9 "2019-11-16T15:28:01Z")
A friend who is in a hardcore Celtic band pronounces it Keltic. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/10 "2019-11-16T16:04:02Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > A friend who is in a hardcore Celtic band… Hardcore Celtic bands used to run into battle naked, covered in blue paint. I am assuming the modern versions take to battle/the stage in the same way. > [@kayaker](#): > > …pronounces it Keltic. Can one really be “hardcore” and use both “k” and “c” in the same word? Surely he must spell it as _keltik_. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/11 "2019-11-16T16:14:46Z")
Heh. In place of the blue paint, they’ve some Celtic tattoos. And for real hardcore, how’s about këltik? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/12 "2019-11-16T20:42:49Z")
I had long heard that the Boston basketball is the Sell-tix, but that all other usages are Kell-tix. But this thread convinces me that it is not that simple. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/13 "2019-11-17T01:30:58Z")
Should cis-gendered be pronounced KISS-gendered? ---
**Author:** ![BlueInfinity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BlueInfinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueInfinity)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/14 "2019-11-17T02:38:52Z")
Put me in the “only use of sell-tic is to refer to the sports team” camp. ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/15 "2019-11-17T03:45:10Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > A friend who is in a hardcore Celtic band pronounces it Keltic. Also we who are in a small, acoustic Celtic folk band. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/16 "2019-11-17T08:43:59Z")
This was definitively settled back in 2005 when Van Morrison released “Celtic New Year” as a track on the album “Magic Time”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/17 "2019-11-17T22:48:39Z")
> [@CelticKnot](#): > > Also we who are in a small, acoustic Celtic folk band. 😃 Trivia for another Hoosier- The elementary school I went to sports teams were the Celts. We pronounced it “kelts.” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/18 "2019-11-17T22:50:32Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > This was definitively settled back in 2005 when Van Morrison released “Celtic New Year” as a track on the album “Magic Time”. 🙂 He settled it much earlier, in 1982 with [Celtic Ray](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-cjfqyBnSw). ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/19 "2019-11-18T02:00:48Z")
This is one of those things where both answers are equally valid, because English is not a strongly prescriptive language. But you’re going to sound weird or ignorant if you use the soft form for anything besides the Boston or Glasgow teams, and the languages used by the Celtic language should all use the /k/ phoneme for C. > [@GreenWyvern](#): > > The ‘English’ pronunciation of Latin (greatly influenced by French) made all C’s soft, so Degenerates like them belong on a cross. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533/20 "2019-11-18T15:12:35Z")
In the pre-1900s church Latin, it would start with an S sound, but we’ve since changed our minds about how we should pronounce Latin. So outside of sports, it’s mostly “keltik” now. So I’m wondering when we’ll start talking about Iulius Kaisar (“weni widee wiki”) and Kikero in history class. For that matter, what do they do in Latin classes nowadays? Do they teach the old pronunciations or the newer, more ancient variety? If I wanted to learn Latin as the late Republic would have spoken it, are there classes I can take, or is it all still based on Church Latin? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-pronunciation-of-celtic/843533.md?page=2)