Kilt / Cilt: What is the Difference?

[Paul Henry]

Trefor, there is nothing about a hem that makes the welsh kilt different, it's really not a design feature!! Sometimes if the fabric isn't woven with a kilt selvedge the kiltmaker has no option , and that isn't restricted to the Welsh Tartan Centre!!,and as to the embroidery . well that's optional as well... I think there is at least one US kilt maker that does that as well.

[Morris at Heathfield]

"Kilt" is an English word, probably of Scandinavian origin. Its first recorded use in reference to the famous Scottish Highland garment was around 1730. That the Welsh borrowed the word as "cilt" is evidence that there was previously no Welsh word for the garment. The Scottish Gaelic spelling of the word is a moot issue, as it is called a feileadh or feile-beag in Scottish Gaelic.

Regarding the pronunciation of "Celt", the "Kelt" pronunciation is a more-or-less recent affectation. It is true that the letter spelled "c" is invariably pronounced as a "k" in the modern languages most associated with the term "Celtic". However, that is all beside the point, because the English word "Celt" does not derive from any of those languages. At best, it derives from a related ancient Continental Celtic language, by way of Greek, Latin, and (most recently) French. Given that we borrowed the word from the French (or, if you consider yourself a Norman, we retained the word after we began speaking English; or, if you consider yourself a Gael...I'm not even going to try to figure that one out ), how else should we pronounce the word in English, but with an "s" sound? There are arguments for going back to the "original"* pronunciation**, to be sure, but I don't see any reason in particular why this word and not others (celebrate, center, certain, cinnamon, circle, city) should be pronounced with a "k" sound.

Except, of course, that it's what everyone else is doing these days.

Myself, I think speakers of English should compromise by agreeing to argue over whether the word should be pronounced "Skelt" or "Xelt". I favor "Xelt". If you're going to go against the conventions of the English language, why not go all the way?

* a near homophone for "oregano"
** "pronuntiation", not "pronunkiation", in this case

[Makeitstop]

If we're gonna screw with the language, can't we just eliminate the letter C? It can always be replaced by S or K.

While were at it, Y will be a consonant full time, QU will now be KW, and P and K will never be silent.

Or we could just say to hell with it and focus our energy on something that actually matters.

[george7]

You can't get rid of c and keep the CH sound.

[McClef]

Paul. I did qualify what I wrote with "can be" and "more likely".

Naturally there are exceptions to the "rule".

Orthography and pronunciation, especially when using the Latin alphabet, can be subject to national differences, and not merely in Welsh or Gaelic.

A well known brand of kitchen cleaner over here was called Jif, but there is no hard J pronunciation in Spain, for example (also Germany and Scandinavia) so it was renamed to Cif - that doesn't help the Welsh pronunciation at all as this then becomes "Kiv" in Welsh!

[Makeitstop]

You can't get rid of c and keep the CH sound.

What's wrong with KH?

[sharpdressedscot]

Maybe if we all went back to Latin things will be much easier.

[Galb]

Kilt = Scottish
Cilt = Welsh

[Carolina Kiltman]

If we're gonna screw with the language, can't we just eliminate the letter C? It can always be replaced by S or K.

While were at it, Y will be a consonant full time, QU will now be KW, and P and K will never be silent.

Or we could just say to hell with it and focus our energy on something that actually matters.

Retired Prof. speaking here. George Bernard Shaw left a sum of money to reform the English language. Part of the blame must go to my patron saint, Bede the Venerable, who more or less forced Saxon into a Latin alphabet, hence some of our weird spellings! One prime example is "ghoti" spells "fish", how? "gh" is the "f" sound as in enough. o is the short "i" sound as in women and "ti" is the "sh" or "esh" sound as in nation Maybe we should all adopt the broad romic phonetic alphabet (invented by Henry Sweet and Paul Pasie) or go to idiographs like the Chinese? So perhaps it best to stick with common use and just call it a Kilt? (A kilt by any other name is still a kilt)

[mbhandy]

So perhaps it best to stick with common use and just call it a Kilt? (A kilt by any other name is still a kilt)

So there you have it.
Stop--- and smell the Roses - er - KILT?

MrBill