Why do people pronounce “Celtics” (as in Boston Celtics) with a soft s of some kind, so “seltiks” instead of “Keltiks”?

Question

Why do people pronounce “Celtics” (as in Boston Celtics) with a soft s of some kind, so “seltiks” instead of “Keltiks”?

In: 6706

Answer 1

I agree the name would come from Latin. The way I was taught Latin was that is the C is followed by vowels A, O or U, it’s pronounced as [K]; when followed by E or I, it would be pronounced as [S] or sometimes even as “tsch”. The truth is I heard so many different pronunciations that it’s hard to tell, but me personally I’d pronounce Celtics as [Seltiks] too. Personal choice. 🙂