Centum-Satem isogloss
Centum redirects here. See Centum (disambiguation) for other uses of the term. |
Diachronic map showing the Centum (blue) and Satem (red) areals. The supposed area of origin of Satemization is shown in darker red (Sintashta/Abashevo/Srubna cultures). |
The
Centum-Satem division is an
isogloss of the
Indo-European language family, explaining the evolution of the three
dorsal consonant rows reconstructed for
Proto-Indo-European,
* (labiovelars),
* (velars), and
*; (palatovelars). The terms come from the words for the number "one hundred" in representative languages of each group (Latin
centum and Avestan '').
The
Satem languages include
Indo-Iranian,
Balto-Slavic (
Baltic and
Slavic),
Albanian,
Armenian and perhaps also a number of barely documented extinct languages, such as
Thracian and
Dacian. Although Albanian is treated as a Satem language, there may be some evidence that the plain velars and the labiovelars were not completely merged in Proto-Albanian.
The
Centum group is often thought of as being identical to "non-Satem", i.e. as including all remaining dialects. More specifically, in the sense of Brugmann's "languages with labialization", the Centum group includes
Italic,
Celtic,
Germanic,
Greek, and possibly a number of minor and little known extinct groups (such as
Venetic and the
ancient Macedonian language and probably the
Illyrian languages).
Tocharian, on the other hand, combined all rows into a single velar row, and is therefore typically considered "Centum", although the relative chronology of the change is unknown. Likewise, the proto-language of the
Anatolian languages apparently did not undergo either the Satem or the Centum sound change. The velar rows remain separate in
Luwian, while
Hittite may secondarily have undergone a Centum change, but the exact phonology is unclear.
The Centum-Satem isogloss explains the evolution of the three
dorsal rows reconstructed for
PIE,
*, *, * (labiovelars),
*, *, * (velars), and
*, *, *; (palatovelars) in the daughter languages. A division into a Centum and a Satem group does only make sense with a view to the parent language with the full inventory of dorsals. Later sound changes within a specific branch of Indo-European that are
similar to one of the changes, such as the palatalization of
Latin k to
s in some
Romance languages or the merger of
with
k in the
Goidelic languages, have no effect on the grouping.
August Schleicher in his
1871 Compendium assumes only a single velar row,
k, g, gh.
Karl Brugmann in his
1886 Grundriss accepts only two rows, denoting them
q, g, gh "velar explosives" vs.
, and "palatal explosives". Brugmann terms the Centum languages "languages with labialization" or "-languages" and the Satem languages "languages without labialization", and he opines that
For words and groups of words, which do not appear in any language with labialized velar-sound, [the "pure velars"]
it must for the present be left undecided whether they ever had the -afterclap. (trans. J. Wright)By the
1897 edition of his work, Brugmann changed his mind, accepting the
centum vs.
satem terminology introduced by von Badke in
1890. Accordingly, he denoted the labiovelars as
, , , (also introducing voiceless aspirates).
The presence of three dorsal rows in the proto-language is still not universally accepted. The reconstructed "middle" row may also be an artifact of loaning between early daughter languages
during the process of Satemization. For instance,
Oswald Szemerényi (e.g., in his
1995 Introduction), while recognizing the usefulness of the distinction
*,
*,
* as
symbolizing sound-correspondences does argue that the support for three phonologically distinct rows in PIE is insufficient and prefers a twofold notation of
*,
*. Other scholars who assume two dorsal rows in PIE include
Kuryłowicz (1935),
Meillet (1937),
Lehmann (1952), and Woodhouse (1998).
The
Satem languages show the characteristic change of the so-called
Proto-Indo-European palato-velars into
affricate and
fricative consonants articulated in the front of the mouth. For example, became
Sanskrit Å› ,
Avestan,
Russian and
Armenian s,
Lithuanian Å¡ , and
Albanian th []. At the same time, the protolanguage
velars () and labio-velars () merged in the Satem group, the latter losing their accompanying lip-rounding.
The Satem shift is conveniently illustrated with the word for '100', Proto-Indo-European , which became e.g.
Avestan satəm (hence the name of the group),
Farsi sad,
Lithuanian Å¡imtas,
Russian sto, etc., as contrasted with
Latin centum (pron. [kentum]),
English hund(red)- (with /h/ from earlier *k, see
Grimm's law),
Greek (he)katon,
Welsh cant, etc. (The Albanian word
qint is a
loanword from Latin
centum.)
The status of Armenian as a Satem language as opposed to a Centum language with secondary assibilation like e.g.
French (i.e. the collapse of the velars with labiovelars rather than with the palatovelars) rests on the evidence of a very few words.
In the
Centum languages, the palato-velar consonants merged with plain velars (*, *, *). Most of the Centum languages preserve Proto-Indo-European labio-velars (*, *, *) or their historical
reflexes as distinct from plain velars; for example,
PIE * : * >
Latin c :
qu ,
Greek κ : π (or τ before front vowels),
Gothic : , etc.
The name Centum comes from the Latin word
centum '100', < PIE *, illustrating the falling together of * and *. Compare
Sanskrit śata- or
Russian sto, in which * changed into a
fricative.
Attestation of labiovelars as actual phonemes , as opposed to simple biphonematic is attested in Greek (the
Linear B q- series), Italic (Latin
qu), Germanic (
Gothic hwair and qairþra
q) and Celtic (
Ogham ceirt
Q). Thus, while usually reconstructed for PIE, the labiovelar quality of this row may also be an innovation of the Centum group, causally related to the fronting of the palatovelars. The chief witness for this question is Anatolian, the phonology of which is for orthographical reasons not known in detail. Hittite (and Luwian) in any case chose not to use the existing
cuneiform q- series (which stood for a
voiceless uvular stop in
Akkadian), but represents reflexes of PIE labiovelars as
ku. Opinions on whether this represents an Anatolian single phoneme, or a group of /k+w/ are divided. The likelihood of three dorsal rows has also been disputed on typological grounds, but that argument has little merit, since there are, indeed, languages with such a three-row system, for example the
Yazgulyam language (an
Iranian language, but its system of dorsals is unrelated to PIE phonology). It is still true that such languages are rare, and one of the three rows is typically quite marginal. It is, then, in any case no surprise that no extant Indo-European language has preserved the full system, even if the parent language really did feature three rows at some point.
There have been recent claims that the
Bangani language of
India contains traces of a Centum language, but they are widely considered spurious.
In the 19th century, it was sometimes assumed that the centum-satem isogloss was the original dialect division of the Indo-European languages. However already
Karl Brugmann, and in particular
Johannes Schmidt regarded the Centum/Satem sound changes as an
areal feature.
Incomplete Satemization in Baltic, and, to a lesser extent, Slavic, is taken as an indication of the diffusion of the satem sound change, or, alternatively, due to loans via early contact of Proto-Baltic and Proto-Germanic speakers. Examples of remnants of labial elements from labiovelars in Balto-Slavic include Lithuanian
ungurys "snake" <
*- ,Lithuanian
dygus "pointy" <
*-,Fewer examples of incomplete Satemization are also known from Indo-Iranian, such as
Sanskrit guru "heavy" <
*-,
kulam "herd" <
*-;
kuru "make" <
*- may be compared, but it arises only post-Rigvedic in our attested texts.
*Solta, G. R.,
Palatalisierung und Labialisierung,
IF 70 (1965), 276â€"315.
