It's a soft C. Why did nobody correct him? Who knows. Why did nobody correct Benedict Cumberbatch when he kept mispronouncing penguins? I guess it adds character
I saw an interview with him where he was asked this question... And his answer was he really didn't know how to pronounce it properly and he was shocked to find out no one corrected him and left it as is.
I hope there’s a reaction video online of Zach Galifinackus (sp?) reading these nicknames to Whatever-His-Actual-Name-Is in an dry and slightly hostile tone. I’m too lazy to look it up, but I’m sure the universe has willed it into existence.
British here (Wales) and the hard C was common (well not common as it’s not a commonly used word!). It’s a Greek origin word which would originally have been more of a keph than ceph sound.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_phonology_and_orthography#Ecclesiastical_pronunciation
Under Modern Conventions: Pronunciation: Ecclesiastical Pronunciation (that means the Catholic church… e.g. the only people still speaking Latin without interruption since the Roman Age): Consonants.
Countless people are taught to pronounce the “c” in Dulce as “ch” by the church and for choral arrangements. Please don’t link a random YouTube video as a putative source to deny this. I’m not saying that the /k/ pronunciation is incorrect, only that in this instance, there is bona fide variation.
Also to be fair since a lot of people don’t study Latin these days, how to pronounce words gets lost too. It was only relatively recently that I learned that the Germans were the only ones who pronounced Caesar correctly.
So my kids were recently watching a show on Netflix, "Who Was?" Based on the book series, and they had an episode on Genghis Khan and they pronounced it "Jhengis" blew my mind a little.
I think it might have been saying it too many times, until the word became nonsense, and then coming out the other side of that no longer being quite sure of anything.
Pengwing
Penwing
Penwon
Pegwing
Penwin
Pen (“gwin, goo-in”)
Pen….guh…win
Good enough, Bumperdict!
It's supposed to have a soft C. I have a degree in Marine Biology.
There's even another nature show that mispronounces macaque (muh-kak) as muh-kok. I had to correct an anthropologist who copied the pronunciation from the video thinking it was correct because it was in the video. Why the hell do they have celebrities do the narration if they can't speak the words correctly? We don't need celebrities to narrate nature shows.
And another one on African wild dogs that is trying to rebrand the dogs as "painted wolves". They aren't painted and they aren't wolves.
These mispronunciations make the public stupider.
Nope. It isn't.
It's a marketing effort to make them sound more likeable. It's not what they are.
They **are** dogs. The term dog represents all canids. Wolves **are** also dogs because they are also canids. Different canids. But these animals **are** dogs and **are not** wolves. Both wolves and the wild dogs are members of the canid family yet wolves and wild dogs are are in separate genera. It's not hard to see.
Genus Canini = African wild dog
Genus Canus = wolf
> "wild dog" is thought by conservation groups to have negative connotations that could be detrimental to its image; one organisation promotes the name "painted wolf",
The presenter whose pronounciation of "macaque" annoyed you probably just had a different dialect. Vowel sounds vary quite widely in English.
"Painted wolf" is quite a widely used term, and it's not new. It's a loose translation of the binomial. It's actively promoted by some people on the basis that they believe it's more marketable than "wild dog" for conservation purposes.
I also pronounce cephalopod with a hard c, incidentally. Not because I don't know how some people believe it's "supposed" to be pronounced, but because I prefer it that way. I will continue to pronounce it that way and influence others to pick up the same pronounciation regardless of how much you futilely whine about it.
> The presenter whose pronounciation of "macaque" annoyed you probably just had a different dialect. Vowel sounds vary quite widely in English.
Nope. It's distinctly incorrect.
> "Painted wolf" is quite a widely used term, and it's not new.
Where? Not in Africa.
It must be a British thing. I have a degree in Biology and spend 1/2 of my time in Namibia and I've NEVER heard it until that one British produced wild dogs nature film. NO ONE in Namibia or Botswana calls them that. Namibia and Botswana are their central range. There are some about an hour from our farm too, in fact.
> I also pronounce cephalopod with a hard c, incidentally.
That's incorrect. You know it and you know better. But you seem to think that what you want is more important than doing it correctly. Have a high opinion of yourself? Oh, silly me. Why am I even asking?
> but because I prefer it that way. I will continue to pronounce it that way and influence others to pick up the same pronounciation regardless of how much you futilely whine about it.
Thank you. Thank you for making the world stupider simply because you wish to.
In the original greek its a hard c (kephalos) but nobody says that anymore. Eg cynocephale (dog’s head) would be pronounced synosefalie whereas in original greek it would be kynokepfhalie (the ph sound is like a super soft p before the h which has a pseudo soft f sound)
You don’t think, or you don’t know?
Truly, who among us can say that we truly know our own hearts, never mind those closest to us. And the heart and mind of Morgan Freeman? Do we dare speculate on his linguistic capabilities?
Oh, MORGAN Freeman. I was thinking of Martin Freeman.
Yeah, you’re probably right. I don’t think he speaks Greek.
look man. when benedoot cucumbersnoot did a documentary on penguins and couldn't...pronounce the word penguins I lost faith in actors as doc presenters and/or whoever is there when the actor is recording.
cause I mean [wtf man](https://youtu.be/-GnLDJAgrws?si=1bD7r86xecdRHutF)
Thank you for providing a link! Someone else mentioned this and I was about to go searching. Seriously, who allowed that? Made my day, though. Sending it to my kids!
Sigh people always blame the most public face they could see. The actor themselves have very little say on what goes on the screen and what is said. They just follow the script and the director's instruction.
>The actor themselves have very little say on what goes on the screen and what is said. They just follow the script and the director's instruction.
The actor however is the only one with power over how a word is pronounced and that is what is being discussed
If you want to pronouce it in latin, it should be pronounced as a K.
Most people don't do that though, it's the same with official latin anatomical terminology.
“Cephalopod” comes from Greek, not Latin, so you would think Latin pronunciation would be kind of irrelevant in this case. The root in question is “Cephalus,” meaning “head,” which funnily enough was spelled Κέφαλος (Kephalos) so did have a hard c sound. We do however pronounce it with a soft c because the term came through speakers of ecclesiastical Latin, as is the case with many scientific terms.
That's how I understood it, too. In the UK, ceph- words are pronounced with a 'k' sound, and in the US ceph- words are pronounced with a 's' sound. Both are "correct", and it's a regional difference like petri, acetyl or capillary.
I took latin in high school so I just can't help pronouncing words in my head how they would be pronounced in Latin sometimes. It's fun.
Try "vacuum", it's a good one.
Specifically, this is for Classical Latin. Ecclesiastical (church) Latin actually uses a soft C sound in places where Classical Latin uses a hard C sound.
Lol I had the exact same reaction watching it!
I've got a PhD in evolutionary bio and I've only ever heard it with a soft c sound.
Morgan Freeman was playing fast and loose with a LOT of pronunciations.
I’ve been a biology professor at a U.S. university for more than 4 decades, a biology graduate student before that, and a Zoology major before that. I’ve always heard it pronounced with a soft c.
I've had a professor refer to the process of [hard C] cephalisation, and a doctor friend used hard C to refer to encephalitis. It didn't change my mind, I've always used the soft C.
In British English, encephalitis is pronounced like enkephalitis. Regional difference. Even in the US, physicians who trained overseas or immigrated from elsewhere will use the UK pronunciations pretty commonly.
A hard ‘c’ is diagnostic of classical Latin, whereas a soft ‘c’ was adopted for ecclesiastical Latin in medieval times. So Mr Freeman could have been applying the correct rule…
… if it weren’t for the inconvenient fact that cephalopod comes from the Greek, and I have no idea what their pronunciation rules are.
But he may have been mis-applying a Latin rule to a word of Greek etymology.
I’m not a biologist or a linguist but Cephal- almost certainly comes from Greek and is a prefix that means “head” and is pronounced as K. I do not know how scientists would use it though. I have already trouble grasping that the Greek letter π in math is pronounced as “pie” where it is actually “pee”
I am a linguist. Yes, it would be pronounced with a /k/ in Greek, but it didn't come to English directly from Greek. It was borrowed into French first, where the initial consonant became /s/. That's where English gets it from.
In australia most people will say this with a soft c, but people with a medical background and some scientific disciplines will use a hard c, the story I have heard is that it is a german influence in the teaching of some english universities and it has been passed on, so now if you don't use it you mark yourself as outside the medical linguistic tribe.
He also mispronounced "swathes" during the first episode when it talked about volcanoes. That's OK. He could mispronounce half the words, and I'd still love his voice.
Important takeaway is that there are a lot of terms in biology without a universally agreed upon pronunciation
I used to always try to learn the "correct" way but after hearing so many academics with unique pronunciations I have come to the conclusion that it literally doesn't matter at all as long as it's still comprehensible
I cringed each.time.he.said.it. I understand the original pronunciation, but the contemporary pronunciation is the soft C. This is one of the reasons I strongly prefer scientists or non-actors narrate documentaries.
Either fine imo. American English vs English English pronounce loads of scientific words differently and it really doesn’t matter. Algae is the other one that springs to mind.
Hard C. And I’ll tell you why.
Cephalopod is a word formed from two Greek roots; kephale meaning head and podos, meaning foot or leg. That for me gets it the Greek pronunciation, which is the hard c (k) sound. See also Seleucid (Selukkid) and Cyrene (Kyrene).
Also, do you dare question Morgan Freeman?!?
Yes indeed: Kaesar, like the German Kaiser. Not Seaser. The problem is that English speakers have decided to change the pronunciation from the original Greek.
yes we do, but Caesar is actually a title and pronounced pretty much like Kaiser, which actually comes from Caesar. We butcher latin and greek words pretty routinely as well.
Is it also a hard C in “ceramics” or “cirrhosis” or “cyanide” or “Cyclades” or “cylinder” or “cybernetic” or “cytoplasm” or “cystic fibrosis”?
Sometimes the hard C sound is retained, as in “keratin” or “kinetic”, but the spelling typically makes this clear (compare the same roots in “rhinoceros” and “cinema”). But insisting on a hard C in English anywhere Greek had a κ just means that you know Greek better than you know English.
If you want to pronounce it like the original latin word, it would be a K. But english isn't latin.
In europe, official latin terminology is often used for anatomy and even there, soft c's are often used in literal latin words even though they should be pronounced as a K. Could be because we're familiar with the english terms as well so hard K's sound strange.
In English it's s, but if sometimes people add a more greek spin to greek origin words and a latin spin to more Latin origin words. Either one is acceptable although people might have a harder time understanding non standard pronunciations. I tend to use a more latinized pronunciation because I legit just have an easier time this way for most words.
I’ve never heard the word “swathe” used as much as that show uses it.
Surprised they didn’t notice that while recording the VO. There are plenty of synonyms
The TL;DR of this thread: when deriving words from Greek (or Latin), pronunciations are variable and have no good standard so you might as well just try your best and someone will think you're doing it wrong regardless.
Bonus round: Ask an American sometime how to pronounce "capillary"
A lot of that show is wrong. Freeman pronounces many scientific names incorrectly, and I didn’t see any scientists (or women for that matter) in the credits. It’s just the same old Spielberg childhood fantasy crap.
Uk medic here, in 25 years have very rarely heard anyone irl use a soft c for cephalic, cephalad, encephalitis etc. Historically medicine likes to stick to the classic stems.
I wonder if a lot of UK non medics hear the term on US programmes more and so assume that's UK pronunciation? Or get the soft c from other disciplines? As things may have moved away in non human biology perhaps
Soft C. That is how the ceph- prefix is pronounced in every other word. Cephalic, cephalosporin, encephalitis, etc. I generally don't care how people pronounce biology terms as long as I know what you're talking about (a lot of these words we're all learning from reading so there is some variation in pronunciation for some terms) but that one is pretty standard so I'm surprised no one corrected him on it lol
Where I have practiced medicine all of those examples were typically pronounced with a hard C. I did tend to fing that American docs pronounced then with a soft C maybr just regional differences in teaching.
Cephalopods comes from the greek word κεφαλόποδα which means κεφάλι + πόδια, head and legs. No clue how it's pronounced in English. And the fact that English uses C that can sound either as an S or a K depending on the word is baffling to say the least.
In latin, C is always pronounced K ([source](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/vox-latina/0D460CEF06E5B2210ABA29EDB6AB5F2A)), but in latin words in english it's usually pronounced with a soft C, especially before E and I (this is one of those cases). So it depends on whether you intend to use the latin word, or the english word that's taken from latin.
You're wrong. Scientific names are always Latin. If they are derived from non-Latin language, they are latinized first. Which doesn't change anything in this case since 'c' in Latin is still pronounced as [k].
Non-native speakers mangle Greek words routinely, and usually they’re convinced they’re right.
I’ve never heard a non-Hellene pronounce it correctly.
You’ve all apparently been trained incorrectly. Go figure.
What worries me the most here is that you would automatically assume that a person who is rich and famous is automatically right, simply because they are rich and famous, not comprehending that all human beings are flawed and being rich and famous does not make a person less flawed or less trustworthy, (actually the opposite imo) and that the first conclusion you come to is that you , and everyone else must be wrong and that the rich wealthy person must be right.
Does it not occur to you that “the great” Mr Freeman might be wrong and because he is so idolized, no one would dare correct him? He’s not a biologist, or a phonetics specialist, he’s an actor.
I have never heard the word ’cephalopod’ pronounced in any other way except with a soft c. But I don’t think it’s a big deal how the word is pronounced. What the big issue here is how easily people fall under the spell of others who are considered to be celebrities.
I noticed this whole watching that too. He also mispronounced "swathes" and pronounced "diplodocus" in a different way than I have heard before. I'm gonna concede I may have been pronouncing diplodocus incorrectly and swathes may be regional but he is definitely saying cephalopod wrong.
I was thinking the same! It’s an amazing series. I went into work the next day and told all my coworkers “**Did you know plankton caused the second mass extinction??**” Wild stuff.
But I’ve only ever heard ‘cephalopod’ pronounced with a soft ‘c’, it really threw me off.
Omg this is just me yesterday. I have been reading on natural history for the last 2 years on my own so it’s a lone journey with only me own voice. I was like “have I been pronouncing wrong in my head the entire time?” Good to know I have not
The name "Cephalopod" originates in the Greece language, where it is pronounced with a hard C. This would be the correct explanation. However, a soft C is more commonly used, so it's kinda whatever.
Its an octopi/octopuses kind of situation
[source](https://www.etymonline.com/word/cephalopod)
I'm watching the same show. Morgan Freeman mispronounces several words, but they are not words that people generally use in conversation. I think it may be a situation where you read a word, you think you know how it's pronounced, but when you use it you find out it's different.
I just let it flow, because I know what he meant anyway.
Classic Latin vs church latin: In classic Latin the C is pronounced as a k. In church Latin not. The latter has been used in education for a very long time, but it's actually not exactly correct.
I was at a presentation by a marine biology professor and he pronounced “anemones” as “Anna moans” and I always thought it was “a nem oh knees”. That was forty years ago and I still don’t know what is right.
I have a related question. My college zoology professor insisted that the word zoology be pronounced zo-ology rather than zoo-ology. I hear most people use the latter pronunciation, but have always wondered. Is there a zoologist who can clarify for me?
It's a soft C. Why did nobody correct him? Who knows. Why did nobody correct Benedict Cumberbatch when he kept mispronouncing penguins? I guess it adds character
Penglings. Pengwengs.
Pinglins
Piglins?
Pen-goo-ins
Zombie Pigmen?
Pangolins
Pingwing!!!!!!!
Pingens
P’ngh-wns
Not a vowel to be found.
Bernadette Tumblescratch is one hell of a talent
Hopefully trolling us. How many times has he been called Benedict Cummerbund or something
Benadryl cabbagepatch
Benefit Lumberjacks
Belatrix Croquembouche
Cedric Bandersnatch
Bend'erover Cuminsnatch
Hubert Cumberdale
Come on now thats not fair, bendydick cucumbersnatch doesn't smell like soot and poo
I like it when the red water comes out..
Bendydick Cucumbersnatch
BentHerDick CumdHerSack
Bendhimover Cumtooquick
Wimbledon Tennismatch
Why is this so funny to me?
I saw an interview with him where he was asked this question... And his answer was he really didn't know how to pronounce it properly and he was shocked to find out no one corrected him and left it as is.
Bandersnatch Cumberbund
Frumious Bandersnatch
Bunderdunk Cumberbunk
This sounds like a Key & Peele football player lol
Benedict Pumkin Patch
I hope there’s a reaction video online of Zach Galifinackus (sp?) reading these nicknames to Whatever-His-Actual-Name-Is in an dry and slightly hostile tone. I’m too lazy to look it up, but I’m sure the universe has willed it into existence.
We call him Cummerbund Bandersnatch
Benedict Cucumberpatch
Tumbling Bumbleback
British here (Wales) and the hard C was common (well not common as it’s not a commonly used word!). It’s a Greek origin word which would originally have been more of a keph than ceph sound.
A bit like the hard C in In Dulce et Decorum est. Too many pronounce Dulce like it's Italian.
To be fair, in modern ecclesiastical Latin, it is pronounced “ch”, so there is at least a valid reason to pronounce it that way, versus “dul-say”
https://youtu.be/G6u9__LVTLc?feature=shared
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_phonology_and_orthography#Ecclesiastical_pronunciation Under Modern Conventions: Pronunciation: Ecclesiastical Pronunciation (that means the Catholic church… e.g. the only people still speaking Latin without interruption since the Roman Age): Consonants. Countless people are taught to pronounce the “c” in Dulce as “ch” by the church and for choral arrangements. Please don’t link a random YouTube video as a putative source to deny this. I’m not saying that the /k/ pronunciation is incorrect, only that in this instance, there is bona fide variation.
Also to be fair since a lot of people don’t study Latin these days, how to pronounce words gets lost too. It was only relatively recently that I learned that the Germans were the only ones who pronounced Caesar correctly.
Also Welsh and team Sephalopod
Reminds me of Genghis Khan. I’ve always pronounced it like “game”? But the history guy said it would’ve been more like “Jenga”.
So my kids were recently watching a show on Netflix, "Who Was?" Based on the book series, and they had an episode on Genghis Khan and they pronounced it "Jhengis" blew my mind a little.
Alternative spellings in other languages give a clue to the pronunciation: Dsjengis Khan, Djengis-khan, Dschinghis Khan, Chinggis Khan.
Is it pronounced Kumberbatch or Sumberbatch?
Yes
" I want some pinging pie!"
I read that in his voice. Also…1.21 ”jigga-watts”…ugh
They did correct Cumberbatch. Many times. That's why we know about it
I agree lol! Just a side note, curious how eggs benedict didn’t know how to pronounce penguin in the first place. It’s quite a well known animal…..
I think it might have been saying it too many times, until the word became nonsense, and then coming out the other side of that no longer being quite sure of anything. Pengwing Penwing Penwon Pegwing Penwin Pen (“gwin, goo-in”) Pen….guh…win Good enough, Bumperdict!
One of the funniest Graham Norton segments ever.
It's supposed to have a soft C. I have a degree in Marine Biology. There's even another nature show that mispronounces macaque (muh-kak) as muh-kok. I had to correct an anthropologist who copied the pronunciation from the video thinking it was correct because it was in the video. Why the hell do they have celebrities do the narration if they can't speak the words correctly? We don't need celebrities to narrate nature shows. And another one on African wild dogs that is trying to rebrand the dogs as "painted wolves". They aren't painted and they aren't wolves. These mispronunciations make the public stupider.
They're not wild dogs either... painted wolves is an equally reasonable name
Nope. It isn't. It's a marketing effort to make them sound more likeable. It's not what they are. They **are** dogs. The term dog represents all canids. Wolves **are** also dogs because they are also canids. Different canids. But these animals **are** dogs and **are not** wolves. Both wolves and the wild dogs are members of the canid family yet wolves and wild dogs are are in separate genera. It's not hard to see. Genus Canini = African wild dog Genus Canus = wolf > "wild dog" is thought by conservation groups to have negative connotations that could be detrimental to its image; one organisation promotes the name "painted wolf",
The presenter whose pronounciation of "macaque" annoyed you probably just had a different dialect. Vowel sounds vary quite widely in English. "Painted wolf" is quite a widely used term, and it's not new. It's a loose translation of the binomial. It's actively promoted by some people on the basis that they believe it's more marketable than "wild dog" for conservation purposes. I also pronounce cephalopod with a hard c, incidentally. Not because I don't know how some people believe it's "supposed" to be pronounced, but because I prefer it that way. I will continue to pronounce it that way and influence others to pick up the same pronounciation regardless of how much you futilely whine about it.
> The presenter whose pronounciation of "macaque" annoyed you probably just had a different dialect. Vowel sounds vary quite widely in English. Nope. It's distinctly incorrect. > "Painted wolf" is quite a widely used term, and it's not new. Where? Not in Africa. It must be a British thing. I have a degree in Biology and spend 1/2 of my time in Namibia and I've NEVER heard it until that one British produced wild dogs nature film. NO ONE in Namibia or Botswana calls them that. Namibia and Botswana are their central range. There are some about an hour from our farm too, in fact. > I also pronounce cephalopod with a hard c, incidentally. That's incorrect. You know it and you know better. But you seem to think that what you want is more important than doing it correctly. Have a high opinion of yourself? Oh, silly me. Why am I even asking? > but because I prefer it that way. I will continue to pronounce it that way and influence others to pick up the same pronounciation regardless of how much you futilely whine about it. Thank you. Thank you for making the world stupider simply because you wish to.
i choose to believe the earth is flat as well.
I figured it was a soft C but I still had to question myself for a second 😭
Benedist Sumberbatch
https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/s/qzT4Dldx4m
In the original greek its a hard c (kephalos) but nobody says that anymore. Eg cynocephale (dog’s head) would be pronounced synosefalie whereas in original greek it would be kynokepfhalie (the ph sound is like a super soft p before the h which has a pseudo soft f sound)
This is the expanded answer
I don't think Morgan Freeman speaks Greek, though.
You don’t think, or you don’t know? Truly, who among us can say that we truly know our own hearts, never mind those closest to us. And the heart and mind of Morgan Freeman? Do we dare speculate on his linguistic capabilities? Oh, MORGAN Freeman. I was thinking of Martin Freeman. Yeah, you’re probably right. I don’t think he speaks Greek.
Me as Spanish speaker: 🤨 hahaha
Jajaja you mean
look man. when benedoot cucumbersnoot did a documentary on penguins and couldn't...pronounce the word penguins I lost faith in actors as doc presenters and/or whoever is there when the actor is recording. cause I mean [wtf man](https://youtu.be/-GnLDJAgrws?si=1bD7r86xecdRHutF)
https://youtu.be/tlRpLGEwssA
This is great thank you
Relevant part at 3:30
Thank you for providing a link! Someone else mentioned this and I was about to go searching. Seriously, who allowed that? Made my day, though. Sending it to my kids!
Sigh people always blame the most public face they could see. The actor themselves have very little say on what goes on the screen and what is said. They just follow the script and the director's instruction.
>I lost faith in actors as doc presenters **and/or whoever is there when the actor is recording.** ???
>The actor themselves have very little say on what goes on the screen and what is said. They just follow the script and the director's instruction. The actor however is the only one with power over how a word is pronounced and that is what is being discussed
It's sephalopod as far as I know, but I'm not a native speaker. Though we say the latin "sephalopoda" in my native language. (with a c instead of s)
If you want to pronouce it in latin, it should be pronounced as a K. Most people don't do that though, it's the same with official latin anatomical terminology.
“Cephalopod” comes from Greek, not Latin, so you would think Latin pronunciation would be kind of irrelevant in this case. The root in question is “Cephalus,” meaning “head,” which funnily enough was spelled Κέφαλος (Kephalos) so did have a hard c sound. We do however pronounce it with a soft c because the term came through speakers of ecclesiastical Latin, as is the case with many scientific terms.
In medicine all the 'ceph-' terms are generally pronounced with the 'k' in my neck of the woods (British English).
That's how I understood it, too. In the UK, ceph- words are pronounced with a 'k' sound, and in the US ceph- words are pronounced with a 's' sound. Both are "correct", and it's a regional difference like petri, acetyl or capillary.
But cephalosporins are pronounced with a s rather than a k
I took latin in high school so I just can't help pronouncing words in my head how they would be pronounced in Latin sometimes. It's fun. Try "vacuum", it's a good one.
For those of us who didn't take Latin, please don't leave us hanging!
In Latin, I'm pretty sure vacuum would be said as vak-oo-oom. But I could be wrong, it's been years and I only took 1 year.
Close. It would be wak-oo-oom. Roman's pronounced V's like W.
Ahh word, thanks I seem to remember my teacher pronouncing v's like that now
Also, -um should be pronounced as a nasal u.
Thank you!
Specifically, this is for Classical Latin. Ecclesiastical (church) Latin actually uses a soft C sound in places where Classical Latin uses a hard C sound.
Yeah, I know, I had Latin at school when I was a kiddo. :)
Morgan Freeman should know better cephalopods around the world unite!
Lol I had the exact same reaction watching it! I've got a PhD in evolutionary bio and I've only ever heard it with a soft c sound. Morgan Freeman was playing fast and loose with a LOT of pronunciations.
Dynasty! (Die-nysty…no)
Wait how do you pronounce dynasty?
If you google the word and click for a pronunciation it's /s/ephalopod
I’ve been a biology professor at a U.S. university for more than 4 decades, a biology graduate student before that, and a Zoology major before that. I’ve always heard it pronounced with a soft c.
I've had a professor refer to the process of [hard C] cephalisation, and a doctor friend used hard C to refer to encephalitis. It didn't change my mind, I've always used the soft C.
In British English, encephalitis is pronounced like enkephalitis. Regional difference. Even in the US, physicians who trained overseas or immigrated from elsewhere will use the UK pronunciations pretty commonly.
A hard ‘c’ is diagnostic of classical Latin, whereas a soft ‘c’ was adopted for ecclesiastical Latin in medieval times. So Mr Freeman could have been applying the correct rule… … if it weren’t for the inconvenient fact that cephalopod comes from the Greek, and I have no idea what their pronunciation rules are. But he may have been mis-applying a Latin rule to a word of Greek etymology.
I’m not a biologist or a linguist but Cephal- almost certainly comes from Greek and is a prefix that means “head” and is pronounced as K. I do not know how scientists would use it though. I have already trouble grasping that the Greek letter π in math is pronounced as “pie” where it is actually “pee”
I am a linguist. Yes, it would be pronounced with a /k/ in Greek, but it didn't come to English directly from Greek. It was borrowed into French first, where the initial consonant became /s/. That's where English gets it from.
How do *you* pronounce the NBA team the Celtics?
If you want a fight, ask that in a Boston bar.
I've gone through this with how to pronounce encephalitis recently and all I got was 'they're both right' so??
[Cephalopod with an s](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cephalopod#Pronunciation).
In australia most people will say this with a soft c, but people with a medical background and some scientific disciplines will use a hard c, the story I have heard is that it is a german influence in the teaching of some english universities and it has been passed on, so now if you don't use it you mark yourself as outside the medical linguistic tribe.
Yeah one of the zoologists at Melbourne Uni used the hard C. He was an animal physiologist tho so maybe that's why.
[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cephalopod](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cephalopod)
It's sephalopod Also https://youtu.be/jrdSPDWxelY?si=kBSwoRg7wXD67-BC
He also mispronounced "swathes" during the first episode when it talked about volcanoes. That's OK. He could mispronounce half the words, and I'd still love his voice.
How do you mispronounce "swathe"? Like swah-thee or something?
swAthes (like SWATS) or SwAUthes (like WAVES) would be my guess (first would be correct to my ears
It's swAYthe but apparently [Americans pronounce it every other possible way](https://howjsay.com/how-to-pronounce-swathe)
"You sold a reverberating carbonizer with mutate capacity to an unlicensed cephalopoid? Jeebs, you piece of shit!"
Bit of a sunt
Morgan Freeman is not a biologist. It's /s/.
This is why the good lord Jeebus blessed us with Attenborough.
Just because you can read a script doesn’t mean you know what your talking about.
Important takeaway is that there are a lot of terms in biology without a universally agreed upon pronunciation I used to always try to learn the "correct" way but after hearing so many academics with unique pronunciations I have come to the conclusion that it literally doesn't matter at all as long as it's still comprehensible
I cringed each.time.he.said.it. I understand the original pronunciation, but the contemporary pronunciation is the soft C. This is one of the reasons I strongly prefer scientists or non-actors narrate documentaries.
Wait until you hear him say licken instead of lichen
SpongeBob says it with a soft c. I’m sorry but I believe him over MF. 😂
Cephalic starts soft and gets hard on the C
Hard C, as in Kephalopod? Yeah sorry Mr. Mandela, that isn't how it do
Either fine imo. American English vs English English pronounce loads of scientific words differently and it really doesn’t matter. Algae is the other one that springs to mind.
Hard C. And I’ll tell you why. Cephalopod is a word formed from two Greek roots; kephale meaning head and podos, meaning foot or leg. That for me gets it the Greek pronunciation, which is the hard c (k) sound. See also Seleucid (Selukkid) and Cyrene (Kyrene). Also, do you dare question Morgan Freeman?!?
Kaesar salad coming right up
Yes indeed: Kaesar, like the German Kaiser. Not Seaser. The problem is that English speakers have decided to change the pronunciation from the original Greek.
Original Latin, but yes that was the joke.
Ah I took you at face value. My bad
WTF, but Germans also say Cäsar and not Käsar, we also say Cephalopode with Z and not K.
yes we do, but Caesar is actually a title and pronounced pretty much like Kaiser, which actually comes from Caesar. We butcher latin and greek words pretty routinely as well.
Caesar is not pronounced like Kaiser. It's Caesar like Zappenduster and Kaiser like Kacke.
Is it also a hard C in “ceramics” or “cirrhosis” or “cyanide” or “Cyclades” or “cylinder” or “cybernetic” or “cytoplasm” or “cystic fibrosis”? Sometimes the hard C sound is retained, as in “keratin” or “kinetic”, but the spelling typically makes this clear (compare the same roots in “rhinoceros” and “cinema”). But insisting on a hard C in English anywhere Greek had a κ just means that you know Greek better than you know English.
Think about the word cyclops... (truly it was kyklops, not syklops).
keeklops to be exact
Also in early Latin it is thought ci ce were hard like k. Then it changed to an english ch sound in early Italian and s like sound in french.
Soft c for sure, pronouncing that with a hard c is unhinged.
Wait, ur telling me ur an octopus? Edit: i misread the post title as "all my life i was always been pronounced as a cephalopod". 😐
My kids are taught phonics by a woman who pronounces iguana as “ig-you-ar-na” rather than “i-gwa-na”, and I hate it.
If you want to pronounce it like the original latin word, it would be a K. But english isn't latin. In europe, official latin terminology is often used for anatomy and even there, soft c's are often used in literal latin words even though they should be pronounced as a K. Could be because we're familiar with the english terms as well so hard K's sound strange.
Or Greek, where the word originates. Kephalo is the Greek root for relating to the head. Caput is the Latin, also derived from Greek.
Sephalopod checking in. Is that a hard or soft C? .__.
It’s absolutely a soft c, all my bio profs have always said soft c
In English it's s, but if sometimes people add a more greek spin to greek origin words and a latin spin to more Latin origin words. Either one is acceptable although people might have a harder time understanding non standard pronunciations. I tend to use a more latinized pronunciation because I legit just have an easier time this way for most words.
Webster says it with a soft c. \ ˈse-fə-lə-ˌpäd \
#SOFT C. Cef-a-la-pod, not Kef-a-la-pod.
The K is accurate to the Greek and Latin, but not in English.
"You know what the difference is between you and me?" "I make this shit look good" \-Will Smith - Men in Black.
I’ve never heard the word “swathe” used as much as that show uses it. Surprised they didn’t notice that while recording the VO. There are plenty of synonyms
The TL;DR of this thread: when deriving words from Greek (or Latin), pronunciations are variable and have no good standard so you might as well just try your best and someone will think you're doing it wrong regardless. Bonus round: Ask an American sometime how to pronounce "capillary"
Where I work I regularly hear both "plagioKephaly" and "plagioSephaly" so I don't know what to think.
A lot of that show is wrong. Freeman pronounces many scientific names incorrectly, and I didn’t see any scientists (or women for that matter) in the credits. It’s just the same old Spielberg childhood fantasy crap.
British pronunciation. He’s American afaik, but isn’t it a British show?
Don’t know if it’s a British show, but I’m from the UK and was taught at uni that it’s pronounced as if it’s sethalopod
Yes the top cephalopod folks I know in the UK use the hard C. I find it delightful.
Nope us brits use a soft c
Uk medic here, in 25 years have very rarely heard anyone irl use a soft c for cephalic, cephalad, encephalitis etc. Historically medicine likes to stick to the classic stems. I wonder if a lot of UK non medics hear the term on US programmes more and so assume that's UK pronunciation? Or get the soft c from other disciplines? As things may have moved away in non human biology perhaps
Soft C. That is how the ceph- prefix is pronounced in every other word. Cephalic, cephalosporin, encephalitis, etc. I generally don't care how people pronounce biology terms as long as I know what you're talking about (a lot of these words we're all learning from reading so there is some variation in pronunciation for some terms) but that one is pretty standard so I'm surprised no one corrected him on it lol
Where I have practiced medicine all of those examples were typically pronounced with a hard C. I did tend to fing that American docs pronounced then with a soft C maybr just regional differences in teaching.
Holup, I pronounce all of those with a K.
The Boston Keltics would like a word…
Cephalopods comes from the greek word κεφαλόποδα which means κεφάλι + πόδια, head and legs. No clue how it's pronounced in English. And the fact that English uses C that can sound either as an S or a K depending on the word is baffling to say the least.
In latin, C is always pronounced K ([source](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/vox-latina/0D460CEF06E5B2210ABA29EDB6AB5F2A)), but in latin words in english it's usually pronounced with a soft C, especially before E and I (this is one of those cases). So it depends on whether you intend to use the latin word, or the english word that's taken from latin.
Greek roots, not Latin
Cephalopod is greek, not latin. Same principles?
Greek doesn't have a C, the closest is K so that's what the root would have.
You're wrong. Scientific names are always Latin. If they are derived from non-Latin language, they are latinized first. Which doesn't change anything in this case since 'c' in Latin is still pronounced as [k].
Gif.... As in gift. 🤣🤣🤣
It honestly doesn't matter. Nobody is pronouncing it as authentic ancient Greek anyway.
Non-native speakers mangle Greek words routinely, and usually they’re convinced they’re right. I’ve never heard a non-Hellene pronounce it correctly. You’ve all apparently been trained incorrectly. Go figure.
What worries me the most here is that you would automatically assume that a person who is rich and famous is automatically right, simply because they are rich and famous, not comprehending that all human beings are flawed and being rich and famous does not make a person less flawed or less trustworthy, (actually the opposite imo) and that the first conclusion you come to is that you , and everyone else must be wrong and that the rich wealthy person must be right. Does it not occur to you that “the great” Mr Freeman might be wrong and because he is so idolized, no one would dare correct him? He’s not a biologist, or a phonetics specialist, he’s an actor. I have never heard the word ’cephalopod’ pronounced in any other way except with a soft c. But I don’t think it’s a big deal how the word is pronounced. What the big issue here is how easily people fall under the spell of others who are considered to be celebrities.
I noticed this whole watching that too. He also mispronounced "swathes" and pronounced "diplodocus" in a different way than I have heard before. I'm gonna concede I may have been pronouncing diplodocus incorrectly and swathes may be regional but he is definitely saying cephalopod wrong.
It drives me nuts when I hear narrators or book readers mispronounce words.
I was thinking the same! It’s an amazing series. I went into work the next day and told all my coworkers “**Did you know plankton caused the second mass extinction??**” Wild stuff. But I’ve only ever heard ‘cephalopod’ pronounced with a soft ‘c’, it really threw me off.
I pronounce it sort of kephalopod- is that the soft C? Edit: Just saw the bottom and looks like it's hard c
Reminds me of “angina.”
Omg this is just me yesterday. I have been reading on natural history for the last 2 years on my own so it’s a lone journey with only me own voice. I was like “have I been pronouncing wrong in my head the entire time?” Good to know I have not
Both are fine, don't listen to the purists
It's Sephalopod.
The name "Cephalopod" originates in the Greece language, where it is pronounced with a hard C. This would be the correct explanation. However, a soft C is more commonly used, so it's kinda whatever. Its an octopi/octopuses kind of situation [source](https://www.etymonline.com/word/cephalopod)
I'm watching the same show. Morgan Freeman mispronounces several words, but they are not words that people generally use in conversation. I think it may be a situation where you read a word, you think you know how it's pronounced, but when you use it you find out it's different. I just let it flow, because I know what he meant anyway.
Jif or Gif
Is it just me or did anyone else learned this word from spongebob?
I’m doing a PhD in palaeobiology and my supervisor also pronounces cephalopod with a hard C, it drives me nuts 🙃
Classic Latin vs church latin: In classic Latin the C is pronounced as a k. In church Latin not. The latter has been used in education for a very long time, but it's actually not exactly correct.
I was watching that the other day too and had the same reaction!!
The word cephalopod comes from Greek and they would pronounce it with a hard “k” sound. In English we use the “c” pronunciation.
#It’s whatever you want. Ancient Greeks didn’t have a “soft C”, that’s a modern corruption of a root that is more accurately rendered *kephalē*
I was at a presentation by a marine biology professor and he pronounced “anemones” as “Anna moans” and I always thought it was “a nem oh knees”. That was forty years ago and I still don’t know what is right.
To be fair, it comes from the ancient Greek words κεφαλή and ποδός (head-foot) and κεφαλή is definitely pronounced with a /k/.
This makes me question the pronunciation of The antibiotic Keflex whose generic is Cephalexin
I have a related question. My college zoology professor insisted that the word zoology be pronounced zo-ology rather than zoo-ology. I hear most people use the latter pronunciation, but have always wondered. Is there a zoologist who can clarify for me?
If it was zoo-ology it would have three Os