Pronunciation

[ericdamiansean]

Hey guys, how do you pronounce 'encephalitis' or any word that has 'ence'?
Is it
a) En- SEF
b) En-KAF

My dictionary says En-SEF, but alot of doctors, consultants pronounce it as EN-KAF

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[fun8stuff]

Hey guys, how do you pronounce 'encephalitis' or any word that has 'ence'?
Is it
a) En- SEF
b) En-KAF

My dictionary says En-SEF, but alot of doctors, consultants pronounce it as EN-KAF

en-sef

 

[dakotaman]

Are you sure you're not thinking of something like "enkephalin"?

 

[exmike]

Are you sure you're not thinking of something like "enkephalin"?

yeah i've never heard encephal-XXXX pronounced EN-KEF

but i hear enkephalins all the time

 

[MD Rapper]

x

 

[Apollyon]

Just today, a guy who just came back from 3 months in the UK said that he will miss ordering "kef-alosporins" when abx were indicated.

The "en-kefalitis" is definitely UK/European - maybe right up there with the "sontameters".

 

[ericdamiansean]

Nope...definately not enkephalins

But I guess most Asian schools are more pro-Brit, tat's why they pronounce it as en-kah

LIke why does edema get spelled oedema and color as colour? A waste of time and ink

 

[MeowMix]

all the cephal- words come from the Greek kephali, head, or enkephali, within the head. So they should correctly be pronounced with a hard "c".

But every time I've done this I've been subtly corrected by a doctor.

Bring back Greek in medical school, I say!

 

[KyGrlDr2B]

Agree with the above posts. We americans butcher every pronounciation to make it our own. But en-kef sounds so ridiculous. I want to punch people when they say it--just like the ones who say SONtimeter instead of centimeter.

 

[pikachu]

I always wondered where this came from, and then I realized that it must be because the word is originally French, and "cent" (hundred) is kind of pronounced more like "sont," (but no -nt sound at the end, you know that weird sort of honking French "on" sound). It bothers me a little less now that I think I figured out WHY people do it - It's still quite pretentious if you ask me though -

 

[MeowMix]

In Canada, a civilized country that uses the metric system, people use centimetres all the time in daily life, and pronounce it "sent" not "sont". And a lot of those Canadians speak French too. It would be considered incredibly pretentious to say "sontimeter".

 

[pikachu]

not saying it was the right thing to do - just my theory about why people say it the pretentious, wrong way.

 

[Singh]

In denmark we pronouce Encephalitits En-sef-alitis.

In danish the word is encefalitis also pronounced En-sef-alitits.

Never heard anyone say en-keph-alitis.
Even Dorlands medical dictionary says en-sef (and you know dorlands can be trusted).

 

[ericdamiansean]

so, the Brits are wrong eh?

Son timeter doesn't sound right.

I'm sticking to en-sef

LIke how I am the few in my class who spell edema as edema and not oedema

 

[kaos]

Or oesophagus.

 

[gary5]

Hey guys, how do you pronounce 'encephalitis' or any word that has 'ence'?
Is it
a) En- SEF
b) En-KAF

My dictionary says En-SEF, but alot of doctors, consultants pronounce it as EN-KAF

FYI. Stedman's Dictionary has a CD with audio pronunciations...