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In an Australian TV program the disease "encephalitis" was pronounced "enKephalitis." Is there a rule about the pronunciation of the letter "c" in Australian English?

Laurel
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Laura B.
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    Apparently both hard and soft c pronunciations exist in British and American English. Perhaps it was somebody of Greek descent (originally from κεφαλή meaning head) or who had a classical education – Henry Sep 30 '16 at 16:10
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    This (using a hard 'c') is actually truer to the Greek roots of the word and is thus arguably more "correct". From Wikipedia: "The word is from Ancient Greek ἐγκέφαλος, enképhalos "brain" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalitis However, due to it being written with a "c", the soft-c pronounciation has grown more common. I don't think that this trend is particularly Australian. – Max Williams Sep 30 '16 at 16:11
  • I'd agree with @Henry that people who have studied ancient Greek (which, along with Latin, makes learning anatomy much easier), are more likely to use the "k" sound. – Max Williams Sep 30 '16 at 16:13
  • We use 'c' mostly because the Romans used 'c' rather than 'k' when they borrowed Greek words - the Latin alphabet had a 'k', but it was very restricted in use, and not usually used to represent Greek kappa. – Colin Fine Sep 30 '16 at 17:32
  • You can find alternate spellings throughout the dictionary. Here is one: Celt |kelt selt| – GEdgar Sep 30 '16 at 23:59

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The pronunciation of encephalitis with /k/ is not specific to Australian English. The competing pronunciation with /s/ is also not exclusive to any one particular country (or as far as I can tell, era). Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, a 19th-century lexicographer born in England, recorded and prescribed /s/ in encephalitis and related words ("Errors of Speech and of Spelling", Volume 1, 1877; page 296).

The variation between /k/ and /s/ in this word does not really follow any regular pattern at all. Some people apparently felt at some point that /k/ was more appropriate in this word, since it's closer to the consonant sound used in the Ancient Greek word from which it is derived.

I think this it's silly to feel this way: many words spelled with "c" used to have /k/ if you go far enough back (such as "child" and "center"). Also, it's not like we pronounce the rest of the word according to Ancient Greek pronunciation. But ultimately, that's just a matter of opinion: there's no way to definitively state that one pronunciation is "correct" or "incorrect". You can see some discussion here: Pronunciation of "encephalitis"

Anyway, even though there is no consistent pattern or rule, there are a few other irregular oddities like this. Some people pronounce "proboscis" with /k/, and everyone nowadays pronounces /k/ in "sceptic" (although many people also change the spelling to "k"). Cephalopod, from the same root as encephalitis, seems to only be recorded in dictionaries with /s/—which is what I've always heard it with—but a search of Internet discussions reveals that a /k/ pronunciation of cephalopod exists.

The same inconsistency applies to some words spelled with "g." As mentioned at that link, in most words from Greek, g is "soft" /dʒ/ before e, i or y. But in a handful of cases, such as gyn(a)ecology/-ist and the prefix giga-, it's now common to use /g/. (This spelling pattern is probably less surprising than the use of /k/ in "ce", since English also has a sizable number of words from other sources with "hard g" before e, i or y.)

herisson
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    The alternative to a hard C would be to say 'septic', which doesn't really do the business. – WS2 Sep 30 '16 at 17:21
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    @WS2: septicism - the belief that there is no such thing as [septicaemia](http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Blood-poisoning/Pages/Introduction.aspx) – FumbleFingers Sep 30 '16 at 18:37
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    @WS2: It's true the words would be homophones in that case. Nonetheless, the French seem to get by using the same pronunciation for sceptique and septique. – herisson Sep 30 '16 at 18:41
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English phonetician J. C. Wells has this remark in his pronunciation dictionary:

  • In words containing (-)cephal-, the medical profession in Britain generally prefers k. The alternative pronunciation with s is nevertheless widespread and preferred in American English.

The entry for encephalitis is the following:

  • BrE enˌkefəˈlaitɪs, (less common) enˌsefəˈlaitɪs
  • AmE enˌsefəˈlait̬əs
grandtout
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It has nothing to do with an Australian-English rule for the letter ‘c’. The word ‘encephalitis’ comes from Greek, and the ‘c’ has always been a ‘k’ in this instance.

The confusion came about when Americans began to mispronounce the beginning of the word as ‘en-seff…’ rather than ‘en-keff…’and this mispronunciation has sadly (like too many Americanisms) spread via TV and cinema.

Matthk
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