Need to know for an upcoming public talk…

I always thought it was ‘sirka’, now I’ve been thrown by an Oxford professor and author of several books pronounce it in a speech ‘kirka’.

I was sure it was ‘sirka’ but who am I to question such pedigree? I’ll leave it to the great minds of STW to clear this one up for me 😀

sirka. What are they a professor of?

surka

sirka

an Oxford professor and author of several books pronounce it in a speech ‘kirka’

If it was a Coventry professor, would you be similarly swayed?

It’s sirka, surka, shmirkay…

As above. As I understand the rule is soft “c” when it’s followed by “i”

Isn’t he being faithful to the original latin? Which is not necessarily appropriate in English of course.

ser-rick-ka

kakakakaka

how do you say circle? kircle?

It was Richard Dawkins to be precise 🙂

Molgrips, thats what I thought, just as Julius Caesar was know as ‘Kaiser’, just wasn’t sure if that pronunciation was still the same for circa as it is a latin word, not an Anglicised latin word.

“around”.
No need to be uber fancy.

DrP

“around”.
No need to be uber fancy.

DrP

“roon aboot”

No need to be posh!

It’s a latin word in common English usage, so whilst it’s spelled the same it is now an English word of Latin origin.

That’s why we can use these words in Scrabble, and why English plurals of words like virus are acceptable.

Circa – sirka as above.

Kirka – different altogether, means ‘ooh look at me with my hat on’

DrP – Member
“around”.
No need to be uber fancy.

DrP

Even though they are synonyms, I have found if you use ‘circa’ it seems to give the impression you know what you’re talking about. If you say ‘around’ it sounds like you don’t have a clue 😕

Unless you don’t know how to pronounce circa that is, then you sound like a idiot 😀

You wanna sound dead posh right? It’s sir-car.

I think it was Carl Sagan who said that “academic intelligence is no guarantee against being dead wrong.”

I have found if you use ‘circa’ it seems to give the impression you know what you’re talking about. If you say ‘around’ it sounds like you don’t have a clue

Absolutely. I use all sorts of posh words on here which I often haven’t a clue how to pronounce.
All with the aim of sounding as if I actually know what I’m talking about.

I reckon I even get away with it sometimes………..the fine and noble art of bullshitting is a highly underrated one imo.

If you can’t dazzle ’em with brilliance baffle ’em with bullshit?

Oxford professors pronounce it wrong to show they’ve been to Oxford…

(says an ex-Cambridge Classicist)

It’s pronounced Throatwobbler-Mangrove.

academic intelligence is no guarantee against being dead wrong

aka “false authority syndrome.”

Or insufferable geek syndrome. People who say ‘dah-ta’ instead of ‘day-ta’ because it’s more accurate to the original Latin.. despite every man and his dog saying ‘day-ta’.

And…. using ‘data’ in the plural.

Yes, I know data is the plural of datum but it doesn’t follow that data has to be plural i.e “the data suggest that….”, Data can (and very often is) singular when it refers to a set so, in fact it is “the data (set, singular) suggests that….”

Anyway, I’ve had a pleasant evening tonight and I’m off to bed.

I think you’ll find it’s sibbolet.

ah ……..middle class angst over pronunciation

It’s simply that in classical Latin, ‘c’s were always pronounced hard, as in ‘k’. Hence the pronunciation ‘kirka’.

By the late antique period, and certainly by the middle ages, ‘c’s had taken on a soft aspect before certain vowels as well as when they occurred at the beginning of a word. Hence the pronunciation ‘sirka’.

That became the standard for anyone but pedants, so stick confidently with the pronunciation you are most familiar with.

‘Sirka’ it is.

Spell it with a cedilla under the 2nd c then you can sound even more parvenu.

about

-ish

Do you pronounce Cinelli as Chinelli or Sinelli?

It’s simply that in classical Latin, ‘c’s were always pronounced hard, as in ‘k’. Hence the pronunciation ‘kirka’

I expect that explains the hard C at the front of the word Celtic, and therefore proves that the football club have it wrong?

Thirka, like the Spanish

konabunny – Member
I think you’ll find it’s sibbolet

Off with his head! 😈
SHibbolet !