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Why is the word "Cyrillic" pronounced with a soft "c" at the start of the word, when the pronunciation of the word in Russian and Mongolian sounds more like a hard "c"?

Golden Cuy
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1 Answers1

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The 'c' is always soft before a 'y'.

Soft c: When “c” is followed by: e, i, y it is sounded as “s.”

The letter “c” has two sounds, hard “c” and soft "c".

The hard sound of "c" occurs most often (cat = kat).

When "c" is followed by (a, o, u) it is sounded as "k" (hard c).

When "c" is followed by (e, i, y) it is sounded as "s" (soft c).

http://www.theschoolhouse.us/lessons/lesson52.html

Cathy Gartaganis
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  • Mostly true, but there are some exceptions. The rare adjective "cymric," meaning "Welsh," is pronounced with a hard "c." It is sometimes spelled with a "k." – herisson Apr 14 '16 at 14:03
  • Spelling is an attempt to represent pronunciation; it doesn't determine it. – choster Apr 14 '16 at 14:06
  • Ah, that explains why "cephalic" in English is largely pronounced with a soft "c" (sɪfˈæl.ɪk), rather than with a "k" as in the original Greek root word. I'd always thought the 'soft C brigade' were mispronouncing it, but now I see I was the one who was wrong. It's a shame, as I prefer the original pronunciation. – HamishKL Apr 14 '16 at 20:53
  • @HamishKL In Greek the sound is more like a "k" because it's actually written with a "κ" , there being no "c" in Greek, and the sound in Greek is not like a "k", but like a hard "g", like "get", because the "κ" is preceded by a "γ", changing the sound of the "k" : εγκεφαλικο.(egefaliko). – Cathy Gartaganis Apr 15 '16 at 00:24
  • @CathyGartaganis: But that's modern Greek, right? I don't speak Greek, but the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says English cephalic actually comes from French céphalique, from Latin cephalicus, from Ancient Greek κεϕαλικός. – herisson Apr 15 '16 at 00:33
  • @HamishKL: You certainly can't go around telling people they're mispronouncing words just because the pronunciation is not the same as in the "source" language. However, "cephalic" is an odd case. The OED actually does list pronunciation variants with /k/ (in addition to those with /s/), but only for when it is used in other words (e.g. polycephalic, microcephalic), not for when it stands alone. – herisson Apr 15 '16 at 00:34
  • @sumelic Ancient Greek κεϕαλικός.is the same word in modern Greek. – Cathy Gartaganis Apr 15 '16 at 00:35
  • @sumelic Ancient Greek is older than languages derived from Latin. – Cathy Gartaganis Apr 15 '16 at 00:37
  • @sumelic "microcephalic" is prononced with a soft "c". – Cathy Gartaganis Apr 15 '16 at 00:40
  • @CathyGartaganis: Right, that's why it's called "ancient" :) I think I got the chronology right in my comment, didn't I? I wasn't sure if κεϕαλικός was still used in modern Greek because the word you listed in your comment has a prefix added and doesn't have the final sigma. – herisson Apr 15 '16 at 00:40
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Cathy Gartaganis Apr 15 '16 at 00:42
  • The etymology is Greek, older than French. Obviously. – Cathy Gartaganis Apr 15 '16 at 00:46
  • Wikipedia says the reason it's transliterated as Cyril instead of Kyril is that "Greek proper names and placenames containing kappa are often written in English with "c" due to the Romans' transliterations into the Latin alphabet". – zzxjoanw May 13 '16 at 10:28
  • @zzxjoanw It should have been written with a 'K', Kyril, to keep the sound of 'k', as it's pronounced in Greek, but the Romans didn't want to stay true to the Greek pronunciation. Κυριακος / Kuriakos is pronounced like a 'k'. – Cathy Gartaganis May 13 '16 at 11:25
  • I believe the British are responsible for the hard c before e in "soccer," and the Americans are responsible for the hard c before i in "fracing." The Americans may be rescued by an effort, after many years of fracing, to put a k behind the c. – Airymouse Sep 01 '16 at 18:14