Heard on NOVA:

[Charles C Doyle]

Up into the 17th century, the spelling "artic" was the norm in English--and "articus" was the most common Latin form (cf. French "artique").  I'm thinking "arctic" was a comparatively late (mid-17th century?) attempt at "correction" on the basis of the Greek word with its "k"?

--Charlie

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2011 7:29 AM


I was taught specifically, in the third grade, to pronounce the first "C" .

It was a lesson too late for the learning.

JL




On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 2:36 AM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on NOVA:
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'll use both /k/ sounds in more formal speech, but it's not my natural
> pronunciation.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
>
> On Jul 27, 2011, at 11:32 PM, Jocelyn Limpert wrote:
>
> >
> > I totally agree with you and learned the same pronunciation as you,
> > pronouncing the initial "c" and not dropping it. These days I am forever
> > hearing TV newspeople and others dropping the initial "c" sound in both
> > Arctic and Antarctic. It bothers me, as to my ear it sounds "wrong"!
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 9:30 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> "It's thirty degrees, it's snowing, and we're in the Arctic [ar.tIk]."
> >>
> >> The pronunciation that I was specifically taught to use ca. 1945 - as
> >> opposed to the "spelling-pronunciation," [arktIk] - still lives.
> >>
> >> You never know.

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