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I'm a complete layman when it comes to the study of Latin, that's why I am posting on this thread. I'm looking for a clarification on a topic I see quite often discussed but never really explained and justified by those who study Latin, and that would be about the pronunciation, specially about the letter "C".
As far as I know, Latin is classified as a dead language, that is, no native speaker of the language exists anymore. Therefore, it is essentially a written language, and the pronunciation of its words are suggestions and suppositions when spoken, practically reconstructed by the knowledge we have of it nowadays.
So it happens that there are some languages today that are considered direct descendants of Vulgar Latin which mixed with local languages, of which the most spoken languages are Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and Romanian. Please, correct me if my assumption is wrong, but therefore, the closest thing we actually have to Latin are these languages mentioned above. Which leads me to the letter "C" problem.
In all of the mentioned Romance languages, the letter "C" is pronounced like a "K" would, as long as the "C" isn't followed by an "E" or "I". However, I see many times Latin students and teachers insisting that the "C" should always be pronounced "K", as in the popular example of "Caesar" supposedly being pronounced close to "KAISAR". No problem here, as the "C" is followed by an "A". However, these same students and teachers defended that Cicero should also be pronounced "KIKERO". On my subsequent questioning of where is the proof for such assumption nobody has given me an answer yet.
My rationale is simply that, if the Latins indeed did pronounce their "C"s always as "K"s, it would be quite natural to accept that some direct descendant language would follow the example. However, of the 5 most spoken Romance language--and even Italian, the language which traces its origins directly into Latin--, in none of those languages we see this rule put into practice. "C" always changes its "K" sound when followed by "I" or "E". Of course do languages change greatly and alter a lot of details with time, but the fact that all those languages maintain this particular consistency had me gone thinking:
Shouldn't it be therefore more logical to assume that the Latin speakers did the same? In other words, shouldn't we assume that "C" is indeed NOT ALWAYS pronounced "K", but changes its sound when followed by "E" or "I", when we try to speak Latin phrases and words?
Please enlighten me.
