Stuart:

Christ is in our midst!!

As a man who was trained as an English teacher before feminist language and before political correctness became part of the academy, I'd vote for the idea that it comes from people who didn't have exposure to basic English phonics in elementary school--something my wife, who is of the same vintage, teaches to her kindergarten students.

When I hear "SEE-fas," it runs down my spine like "fingernails on the blackboard," though I date myself with this metaphor.

Bob

Bob,

I spent much time as "blackboard monitor" in school, slap them erasers against the outside wall and wipe the board every day with a wet sponge...especially loved cleaning it after someone wrote I will not ______ a hundred times or so.

Bob,

I'm not sure it's a matter of Engish phonics, since I don't know of many English words with an initial C followed by either a long or short E that are pronounced with a hard C.

On the other hand, in standard English we have the Greek loan words Cepheus, cepheid, cephalic, Cerberus, centaur, cerium, which are all usually pronounced with a soft C. (Similarly for C followed by I: e.g. Circe. Pronunciations are from Webster's 9th Collegiate.) When computer programmers adopted Cerberus for a security term, they spelled it Kerberos, and that is pronounced with a hard C.

I admit that I would rather see Greek words with a generally Greek pronunciation, but we certainly don't pronounce initial "Eu" or "Th" in the Greek fashion either. It's a matter of how foreign names are pronounced in an English context.

In Christ,
Jeff

I think it might have something to do with the people who think the Boston basketball team is called the Sell-ticks. That, as far as I can tell, is the only time in English usage the word is pronounced in that manner--which perhaps reflects badly on the literacy of people in Beantown.

Stuart, be kind to those of us from the Bawston area...not all can afford to attend those Ivy league schools