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Centum and satem languages information


Approximate extent of the centum (blue) and satem (red) areals. The darker red (marking the Sintashta/Abashevo/Srubna archaeological cultures' range) is the area of the origin of satemization according to von Bradke's hypothesis, which is not accepted by most linguists.

Languages of the Indo-European family are classified as either centum languages or satem languages according to how the dorsal consonants (sounds of "K", "G" and "Y" type) of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) developed. An example of the different developments is provided by the words for "hundred" found in the early attested Indo-European languages (which is where the two branches get their names). In centum languages, they typically began with a /k/ sound (Latin centum was pronounced with initial /k/), but in satem languages, they often began with /s/ (the example satem comes from the Avestan language of Zoroastrian scripture).

The table below shows the traditional reconstruction of the PIE dorsal consonants, with three series, but according to some more recent theories there may actually have been only two series or three series with different pronunciations from those traditionally ascribed. In centum languages, the palatovelars, which included the initial consonant of the "hundred" root, merged with the plain velars. In satem languages, they remained distinct, and the labiovelars merged with the plain velars.[1]

*kʷ *gʷ *gʷʰ labiovelars Merged in satem languages
Merged in centum languages *k *g *gʰ plain velars
*ḱ *ǵʰ palatovelars Assibilated in satem languages

The centum–satem division forms an isogloss in synchronic descriptions of Indo-European languages. It is no longer thought that the Proto-Indo-European language split first into centum and satem branches from which all the centum and all the satem languages, respectively, would have derived. Such a division is made particularly unlikely by the discovery that while the satem group lies generally to the east and the centum group to the west, the most eastward of the known IE language branches, Tocharian, is centum.[2]

  1. ^ J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (1997), p. 461.
  2. ^ Fortson 2010, chpt. 3.2–3.25

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Dacian language

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Phrygian language

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Bactrian language

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Italic languages

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Vistula Veneti

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Phrygia

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