How to pronounce

Celtic pronunciation

/ˈkɛl.tɪk/
KEHL-tihk

Celtic has 2 syllables. The stress is on the first syllable, "kehl". Capital letters in the respelling show where the stress falls.

Say celtic and check it

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Accent

Press record, say "celtic" once or twice at normal speed, then stop. You will see which syllables matched and what to change.

Celtic syllables

Celtic has 2 syllables: KEHL-tihk.

  1. KEHLkɛl
  2. tihktɪk

KEL-tik, hard k, for the people, the languages, and the art. SEL-tik is reserved for the Glasgow football club and the Boston basketball team — say it that way anywhere else and you will be corrected.

Sounds to watch

The l sound

Touch the tongue tip to the ridge behind your top teeth. At the end of a syllable the l is darker and the back of the tongue rises.

Short i versus ee

The short i (as in sit) is shorter and more relaxed than ee. Many learners stretch it into ee, which changes the word.

Celtic in a sentence

  • The brooch is decorated with interlaced Celtic knots.
  • Welsh and Breton are both Celtic languages.

Read either sentence into the recorder above. The check judges only the target word, so the rest of the sentence can be rough.

What Speakeroo listens for

These are the pronunciation patterns from Speakeroo’s speech feature catalog that this target tends to expose. The check above reports the ones it hears.

  • Final consonant omittedHold the final mouth position briefly without adding another vowel.
  • /ɪ/ and /iː/ confusedMake /iː/ higher, tenser and usually longer than /ɪ/.
  • Every syllable stressed equallyEmphasise one main syllable and reduce the others.

Questions

How do you pronounce celtic?

Celtic is pronounced /ˈkɛl.tɪk/, or KEHL-tihk in plain letters. It has 2 syllables and the stress falls on the first syllable, "kehl".

How many syllables are in celtic?

2: KEHL-tihk. The capital letters mark the stressed syllable.

How do you use celtic in a sentence?

The brooch is decorated with interlaced Celtic knots. Welsh and Breton are both Celtic languages.

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