I did provide a link where both the British and the American pronunciation treat the c as an s sound. They have the IPA as
/əˌsəʊ.siˈeɪ.ʃən/
for both dialects. “soc” does contain the c, not the t.
As I said, I’m not debating that the t in “tion” is pronounced that way (at least I tried to be clear, maybe I muddled it even more), but I have always pronounced the c as an s sound, and it appears Cambridge agrees with me.
Some British English dialects do use a ʃ sound for the C in “association”. OED has it listed for both UK and USA, though I don’t personally know what the US situation is there
The pronunciation tab there is paywalled, but in the OED app on my phone, they list /əˌsəʊsiˈeɪʃn/, followed by /əˌsəʊʃiˈeɪʃn/ in the pronunciation section. I honestly can’t recall ever hearing a single person in the US pronounce it /əˌsəʊʃiˈeɪʃn/, and though I won’t say nobody does, the other pronunciation is far and away more common, where the ‘c’ and ‘t’ make entirely distinct sounds.
I did provide a link where both the British and the American pronunciation treat the c as an s sound. They have the IPA as /əˌsəʊ.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ for both dialects. “soc” does contain the c, not the t.
As I said, I’m not debating that the t in “tion” is pronounced that way (at least I tried to be clear, maybe I muddled it even more), but I have always pronounced the c as an s sound, and it appears Cambridge agrees with me.
Some British English dialects do use a ʃ sound for the C in “association”. OED has it listed for both UK and USA, though I don’t personally know what the US situation is there
The pronunciation tab there is paywalled, but in the OED app on my phone, they list /əˌsəʊsiˈeɪʃn/, followed by /əˌsəʊʃiˈeɪʃn/ in the pronunciation section. I honestly can’t recall ever hearing a single person in the US pronounce it /əˌsəʊʃiˈeɪʃn/, and though I won’t say nobody does, the other pronunciation is far and away more common, where the ‘c’ and ‘t’ make entirely distinct sounds.