h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Which brings us back to the central point: that the "k" is actually the more correct spelling if you're going to get etymological on my ass, while the soft "c" pronunciation is the prevalent English pronunciation.

Oh, and "seffalapod". Just like I'd pronounce "cetacean" as "su'tayshun".

There are a significant minority of self-satisfied pedants who insist on pronouncing hard "c" in words like "cinema". They usually wear horn-rimmed glasses, smoke pipes, have leather patches on their elbows and have small, neatly trimmed beards. And the men aren't much better.

I've always wondered why the word "Celt" is pronounced with a hard "c" sound. It seems completely at odds with every other similar word. But that's English (or rather, more probably, German) for you.

H.

Adelaide said: "Maybe I just had old-fashioned parents.. "



I don't think I even need to comment on that.



H.

And the trasher of threads struck again and completely missed the point

Incidentally, Hoovooloo, it's called the 'KT boundary', rather than the 'CT boundary' because 'C' had already been designated for the period known as Cambrian and so couldn't, therefore be used to refer to 'Cretaceous'.

The K, according to Mr Bryson, comes from either the greek 'kreta' or the German 'kreide' both of which mean chalk, as does cretaceous.

I'd've thought the hard 'c' in Celtic is Celtic in origin
there are no soft 'c's in Welsh
for example the Welsh spelling of Nancy is Nansi

also no soft 'c's in Latin so Kaiser is a lot closer to the way the Romans would have said Caesar than the way we say it