Confusatory

    This is something that's been bugging me for quite awhile now.  In
English, French and Spanish (don't know about Rumanian or Portuguese) there's
this letter "c" that's pronounced either as an /s/ or a /k/, depending on the
vowel it preceeds.  In classical Latin they say that this letter "c" was
always pronounced /k/, no matter what the environment.  Fair enough.  What my
question is, is how on Earth did /k/ go to /s/ in ANY environment?  I can
understand /tS/ in Italian (or at least it makes more sense), but /k/>/s/
seems a reach.  Who knows something about this?  Was the progression
/k/>/kj/>/C/>/S/>/s/?  And if so, how come there's no remnants of it?  Or are
there and I just don't know?  Anyway, growing up with English and Spanish as
my languages, I never questioned "c", but now he's beginning to look a bit
fishy.  Can anyone help?

-David

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