Why is boston celtics pronounced wrong

Most teams were reflective of their home neighborhood; a group of Irish immigrants from Chelsea, unsurprisingly, took the name of the Celtics. Your email address will not be published. Skip to content. You might be interested: Quick Answer: Where does boston marathon end? You might be interested: Readers ask: Why is it so cold in boston? The Irish dominated the first wave of newcomers during this period, especially following the Great Irish Famine.

Your email address will not be published. Skip to content. You might be interested: How far is oxford ms from nashville tn? You might be interested: Often asked: Who owns boston store? Index Newest Popular Best. New Player Log In. Newest Questions Post a Question Search All Questions Please cite any factual claims with citation links or references from authoritative sources.

Editors continuously recheck submissions and claims. Archived Questions Goto Qn. Why is the "C" in the Boston Celtics pronounced with a soft sound instead of a hard sound? McGruff Answer has 6 votes. McGruff 22 year member replies Answer has 6 votes. Kel-tic, unless you are talking about the basketball team, the Boston Celtics, which for reasons unknown to me, is pronounced Sel-tic. Always Keltic. From the Greek word for us: keltoi.

Nevertheless, English speakers, especially those who wanted to sound knowledgeable about things Celtic, grew to prefer the hard 'c' pronunciation, which harkened back to the words' ancient roots.

Apparently, people appreciated the ethnic pronunciation. This shift in the pronunciation of Celt is fully evinced when comparing H.

The European away support that Celtic enjoys is phenomenal. Few clubs have a fanbase that travels in such numbers or makes as much noise, all the more remarkable when you consider the poor record that the club has away from home in recent times. Aside from this use of the initial soft 'c' in sports teams' names, Celtic with a hard 'c' is the standard; however, you might still sometimes hear the 'c' softly sounded by those who are uninitiated in the history and etymology of Celt and Celtic as well as those who are unfamiliar with the words and resort to the phonetic rules of English.

And, as happens so often in English, those phonetic rules let them down. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!