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Do we actually know how the ancient Romans pronounced Latin words? (continued)
Georgina Skipper
Weymouth, Dorset, UK
The evidence for the hard “c” sound in Latin is strong, but more interesting is the reason for the shift to the soft “c” before “e” and “i” in modern languages.
These vowels are formed further forwards in the mouth and “k” is formed at the back. We may be seeing the same sort of thing happening in speech by people from Liverpool, UK, where “k” is pronounced further forwards, with a hiss, and seems to be on a path to becoming an…
