Monday, July 23, 2007

In this post, the gnats are the big picture

Truly tiny point (you know how I love to strain at 'em!):

In the Dawkins reading that I mentioned yesterday, he at one point says "circa," but pronounces it "kirka." I was unable to stop pondering this all day today.

None of the dictionaries that I looked at, both online and here at home, provide this alternate pronunciation. Not even the OED.

Thus, I turned to the preeminent source for all matters linguistic, and asked, "Could it be that Dawkins is imperfect?" Dan replied:

I'm afraid he is perfect, if a bit pretentious. The classical pronunciation (as best as scholars can determine), used during Roman times, was "kirka", spelt "circa". Then in the Middle Ages it was changed variously to "chirka", "tsirka", or "sirka", depending on the local vernacular).

That sure sounds good.

I Googled "circa kirka" and found two pertinent hits before I lost patience paging through the results. One used it in passing as an example, on page 48 of a MEGO-inducing rant about phonetics when Hebrew and English are both involved. The title of the work is Glorious Incomprehensible, so I hope you'll forgive my lack of attention.

The other merely noted the utterance by a college English professor. This prof apparently had a reputation for obscure, and correct, alternate pronunciations. One of the commenters on this post does say something along the lines of Dan's explanation.

To put this issue to bed (as if you all aren't already asleep), I'd like to hear if any of you have ever heard a (smart) person pronounce "circa" as "kirka." It would be especially interesting to hear from the British contingent of the reading masses.

Thanks!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I was learning Latin as a bairn, the (ludicrous) convention was that EVERY "c" was a hard "c". That might have been peculiar to my school; it wouldn't be the only instance of peculiarity in my alma mater.

In modern Italian, of course, the word still exists, and is pronounced "cheer-ka".

bjkeefe said...

Thanks for the input, Shit.

I should have realized the Italian pronunciation (I asked someone else about this last night) from, say, ciao.

bjkeefe said...

And regarding your Latin training, did you say, "et ketera?"

Anonymous said...

My Latin teacher, a certain "Buttocks" Burnell, probably would have said "et ketera", and we'd have all laughed at him - but we usually did that anyway, to be honest.

bjkeefe said...

Having to change the way I pronounce "et cetera" and "circa" would be even more annoying than having to memorize that Pluto is NOT a planet.

bjkeefe said...

JF just sent this report, by email:

Darts commentator and author Sid Waddell (a Cambridge English graduate) pronounced circa "kirka" on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning in an interview about his new book.

Gray said...

It's interesting that you brought up "et ketera" in the comments, as Dawkins used the (thankfully) more familiar pronunciation of that phrase just a few minutes before he dropped the k-bomb in that reading. I would imagine the disparity of status between the words (everyday versus scholarly) is the reason behind his lack of consistency here.

bjkeefe said...

Gary:

That's probably right. Most of us learn et cetera long before we learn circa, and as a result, it's probably said more unconsciously.

One worry:

I wonder how long it'll be before some Googling Bible-literalist happens upon your comment and grabs it as "proof" that DAWKINS IS INCONSISTENT, THEREFORE EVOLUTION IS A LIE!!!11!1

Anonymous said...

I did the exact same Google search for circa kirka, having heard a colleague repeatedly use the pronunciation in seminar presentations (I'm a history student). I'm pleased to see that this is most likely because he has studied Latin, and is not necessarily correct for its modern usage. For what it's worth, I prefer the pronunciation sirca, as its less strident and so doesn't dominate the date that comes after.

bjkeefe said...

Anon:

I see you have the same reaction to "kirka" as I would have to "et ketera."

I have to say, though, that in the half year since I put up this post, I seem to have become enamored of the new old way to pronounce the word, and now am at the point where I gratuitously approximate, even if I know a date precisely, just to have an excuse to say "kirka."

Even if Spock was always my favorite.

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