Heard on NOVA:

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 28, 2011, at 9:26 AM, Charles C Doyle wrote:

> 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


So there's a kind of family of etym(yth)ological spellings/spelling pronunciations/scribal variants, including the <b> in "debt", the <th> in "author", the <th> in "Anthony", and so on.  (Others?)  At least the "arcticus" spelling (and presumably the corresponding cluster pronunciation) was around in Latin, even if it had disappeared by the time it got to French.

LH
>
> ________________________________________
> 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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