Celts

[eric100]

Why do we say Celts as though it is spelt with a K, yet Glasgow Celtic is pronounced as though starting with an S

[Quizmonster]

The word �Celt' comes from both Latin (Celtae) and Greek (Keltoi). It is because of the double source that the word's adjective form, 'Celtic', is pronounced in two different ways. For example, the name of the Glasgow football team, Celtic , is pronounced with a soft C...Seltic from the Latin, whereas the people named as Celts are usually pronounced with a hard C...Keltic from the Greek.
The original Celts were an Indo-European people in the Iron-Age, spread across the area from the British Isles in the north and Spain in the south to what is now Turkey. The Roman Empire absorbed them all as Britons, Gauls, Galatians and so on.
In modern-day Britain, people still described as Celts are highland Scots, Irishmen, Welshmen and Cornishmen.

[sigma]

I have heard that a secretary of Glasgow Celtic FC pronounced it with a soft C when reading out the minutes and the pronunciation stuck

[Quizmonster]

The word in English is an adaptation from the French equivalent which is 'celtique' and - though I'm no expert in French - I'd guess that the opening letter there is almost certainly usually pronounced as 's'. (It may well, of course, be pronounced both ways in France, too...I don't know.) The 's' pronunciation has, therefore, been around for an awful lot longer than Celtic Football Club has!

[MustafaTickl]

Here is a Celt.

[heathfield]

Today we say 'cinema' as though it starts with an 's', but the word comes from the Greek 'kinema' meaning 'movement'.