Why is Celtic pronounced 'Keltic' and 'Seltic?

Why are Glasgow Celtic pronounced seltic and not the more obvious keltic.

• Answer:

  "The pronunciation of the words Celt and Celtic in their various meanings has been surrounded by some confusion: the initial ‹c› can be realised either as /k/ or /s/ (that is, either hard or soft) but is most commonly pronounced with the latter. Both can be justified philologically and both are "correct" in English prescriptive usage. Although the word originated in an early Continental Celtic language, it came to English via Greek (Keltoi), where it is spelled with a kappa; thus /k/ is the original pronunciation. This was borrowed into Latin (Celtae), where it was likewise pronounced with /k/. However in the transition from Latin to French, this sound shifted to /s/, a process known as palatalisation. Under French influence, the practice ‹c› representing /s/, when used before the vowels "i" and "e," in words of Latin origin became established in English, as for example celestial, cilia, and Cicero. Thus /s/ is the inherited pronunciation in English for these words. This sound change has resulted in a general orthographic convention of English, ‹c› usually represents /s/ before front vowels (‹i e y›). For additional discussion see Latin spelling and pronunciation. Until the mid-20th century, Celtic was usually pronounced with /s/ in English except by academics, but the pronunciation with /k/ has been gaining ground recently. Following the usage of philologists, /k/ is now almost invariably used with reference to Celtic culture even in non-academic contexts. However, the /s/ pronunciation remains the most recognised form when it occurs in the names of sports teams, most notably Celtic Football Club and the Boston Celtics basketball team. There is a great deal of misinformation in circulation on this topic. There is, for example, no American-British distinction in these pronunciations, nor is there a Scottish-Irish distinction. Neither pronunciation has been influenced by any modern Celtic languages, nor by Old Norse. The corresponding words in French are pronounced with /s/ while those in German have /k/ (and are even spelled with ‹k›), but neither French nor German has influenced English usage; rather, they show independent reflexes of the same phenomena in Latin and Greek. The celt, a stone tool, has a completely separate etymology from Celt and Celtic. In English its sole pronunciation is /ˈsɛlt/." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Celts