Kephalopod or Sephalopod?

How do you pronounce 'cephalopod'?

  • Soft C (Sephalopod)

    Votes: 13 92.9%
  • Hard C (Kephalopod)

    Votes: 1 7.1%

  • Total voters
    14
Joined
Nov 5, 2014
Messages
38
Location
Queensland, Australia
I'm sure this may have been brought up before...but I'm wondering what the consensus is here among this large cephalopod community. Do you guys pronounce 'cephalopod' with a hard C or a soft C?

I have been saying it with a hard C (Kephalopod) since an important someone corrected me years ago. But I seem to be the only person to say it this way, and often get funny looks from my colleagues (but I'm the only cephalopod researcher at my uni..so they don't challenge me). I've heard David Attenborough say "kephalopod", but I've heard Roger Hanlon say "sephalopod"...so I'm confused.

How do you guys say it? Do you consider one way 'wrong' or do you think they are both correct? I've been saying it this way for too long to change now...but I'm curious as to what you guys think.
 
I've heard Canadaians use the hard "C" too so I looked it up :roll: and was surprised to find the UK and US pronounciations given in the Cambridge dictionary:
How to pronounce CEPHALOPOD in English

and backed up by the Oxford dictionary: cephalopod noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

What you will note that it is NOT the C/K sound that is the difference :sagrin:

In fact, going through the first 7 or so pronunciation listings from Google I cannot find one that even suggests a hard C sound at the beginning.
 
I recall having a conversation with Colin about this ( he lives in Scotland). He said that in Scotland they use the hard "C" for cephalopod and also for words like "Celtic".
In my 17 years in Canada, I never heard the hard "c" for cephalopod or Celtic.

Nancy
 
I can't find where I heard him use it but Toren Akinson (Canadian, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets mythos band, not sure of TONMO name) uses the hard "C" so I think I assumed Canada in general. I have asked @anothersquid to weigh in on the matter :biggrin2:
 
The word cephalopod comes from ancient Greek and Latin. In both cases, it would be pronounced "keph..." There is no "soft c" in either language.

Yes, that means Julius, Augustus, and the salad are all pronounced "kaiser" if you're pronouncing the Latin properly. Most people don't realize that, but the Germans had it right :smile:

However, I am neither ancient Greek, nor am I speaking Latin, so I think "seph..." is just fine for English speakers. After all, most of the world calls them calamar, but we anglos call 'em squid... we're not bound by the rules of ancient civilization. I've never heard "kephalopod" except from a few eastern Europeans.

How to Pronounce Latin

You'll have to look up ancient Greek pronunciation on your own, or have faith that I've looked it up and am not tricking you :smile:
 
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I recall having a conversation with Colin about this ( he lives in Scotland). He said that in Scotland they use the hard "C" for cephalopod and also for words like "Celtic".
In my 17 years in Canada, I never heard the hard "c" for cephalopod or Celtic.

Nancy

Naked guys painted blue and running through the forests of northern Brittania are Celtic (KELTIC)

Tall guys playing silly-bugger with an orange ball around New England are Celtics (SELTICS)

I'm Canadian, and I've never heard "seltic" anywhere except in refrence to the basketball team. Of course, I'm also of Scottish descent :smile:
 

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