Re: Celtica (was: Maggel)

Tristan Mc Leay wrote:

> Stephen Mulraney wrote:
>
>> Tristan Mc Leay wrote:
>>
>
>>> If I was describing Irish as anything but Irish, it'd be [k&ltIk].
>>> As far as I can tell this is normal usage for Australia.
>>
>>
>>
>> Well that's just not right :). *Celtic*?
>
>
>
> I didn't say it was. I would normally describe things Irish as Irish. If

Ah, I misread. Somehow. Yet again.

> I'd describe it as German or Dutch or Swedish. (Incidentally, you might
> be pained to learn that 'Ireland' and 'island' are homonyms round here.)
Well, it's a good description :). "Land of Ire" has never particularly
appealed to me...

>
> I don't particularly perceive Australians as being perceived as of
> convict stock,
Well, that was my point (though my example suggested I was concentrating
on genetics: I was thinking more of culture and language). I wouldn't
particularly perceive the Celts as being anything more than the most
famous of many layers. Indeed, although the Irish language is celtic in
origin, I don't think ogham recordings of proto-Irish (which were
post-celtic, I believe) give the impression of being particularly
"Irish". Their language might be a stage of development of the Hibernian
branch of Insular Celtic, but it ain't *Gaeilge*.

> but I suppose I'm Australian so I'm biased.

Well, not biased; informed.


>> Well, it could be worse... at least you don't say [s&ltIk].
>
>
>
> The funny thing is that the first time I came across the word 'Celtic',
> it was in text and I spelling pronounced it correctly. But the general
> impression I get is that at least round here, <c> first and foremost
> makes the sound /k/, so that 'Celtic' is spelt regularly but 'cell' is
> just one of a huge number of irregularly spelt words.

:). Once, long ago, it took an awful lot of introspection to convince
myself of the thesis that <c> represented different sounds in different
environment. I couldn't get the idea out of my head that <c> had a
distinct (phonetic) *character*, and that it was just one sound. Then it
was another day's work to identify the two values of <c> with the sounds
of <k> and <s>.... [I still have the same problem: I sometimes can't
find something that I'm standing right in front of, because the mental
image of it is much more vivid than the real thing...]

Hmm, I think I'll go for the Oirish sig today...

s.
--
To be sure                              Stephen Mulraney
  to be sure                            ataltane@ataltane.net