Crusty wrote:

> Ahoy me mates in OZ, I have a question for you.
>
> Elisa and I, while enjoying a delicious home cooked dinner of wild king
> salmon and a fine bottle of New Zealand Nautilus chardonay, watched a
> Discovery Channel special from OZ on cephlopods.  Of course the infamous
> blue ring, terror of the deep, was a feature.  :-)
>
> All thoughout the program, the Ozzie host pronounced the invertebrate
> cephlapods as 'kef-lopods' with a hard 'K' sound.  I've always heard it
> pronounced with a soft 'C' sound as in 'seph-lopod'.  Is the 'Kef-lopod'
> pronounciation common in Oz?

Well, I have never heard it pronounced with a hard C and, indeed, all
my dictionaries (or at least the four I have at home) show that the
pronunciation is with a soft C.

Mind you the derivation is Greek "kephale" meaning head  which, of
course, has a hard "c" if you like, and "pous podos" foot so what do
we know? Then again, I know nothing about Greek and maybe a Greek "k"
is actually a soft "c". Nope, note "kilo" as in the Greek "khililoi".

Errrmmmmm, may I, most respectfully, point out that it's actually
Ceph*q* ..., In mean Ceph*w* ..., I mean Ceph*s* ..., I mean Ceph*z*
... Oh sh*t, so I'll agree with you, it's Cephalopod.

Aaaaahhhhhhh. ;-)

Cheers,

Christian