Pronunciation of the letter "c" or "ce" in Australian English

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?

Solution 1:

The pronunciation of encephalitis with /k/ is not specific to Australian English, and it's not really a general 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 that's just my opinion. You can see some discussion here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/p9P8kdiF_EU%5B1-25%5D

Anyway, even though it's not a common pattern, there are a few other 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").

The same inconsistency applies to some word 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 not as surprising since English also has a sizable number of words from other sources with "hard g" before e, i or y.)

Solution 2:

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