In classical Latin pronunciation as understood today, "C" would be ... if that was a long vowel and the otherwise. I didn't think the Romans did stress. I thought (in poetry at least) it was all to do with long and short vowels -

I believe that what Jerry is referring to is the ... this, but a recording by Mr. Hamm may prove enlightening. You can be skeptical, but it's the case: I (in general) have /A/ before a voiced stop (and in ) and /a/ before a voiceless one. That

My coworkers have asked me to stop muttering "Charles" over and over. I'd best not start calling it out loud. It's hard to pronounce in one syllable for a rhotic speaker, I think, without winding up sounding like Tom Brokaw.