Satem
The
Satem division of the
Indo-European family includes the following branches:
Indo-Iranian,
Baltic and
Slavic,
Armenian,
Albanian, plus a number of barely documented extinct languages, such as Thracian and Dacian (see:
Indo-European languages). All those languages show the characteristic change of the so-called
Proto-Indo-European palato-velars (*k
^, *g
^, *g
^h) into
affricate and
fricative consonants articulated in the front of the mouth. For example, *k
^ became
Sanskrit s′,
Avestan,
Russian and
Armenian s,
Lithuanian s^,
Albanian th, etc. At the same time, the protolanguage
velars (*k, *g, *g
h) and labio-velars (*k
w, *g
w, *g
wh) merged in the Satem group, the latter losing their accompanying lip-rounding.
By contrast, in the remainder of the Indo-European family (the so-called Centum languages), palato-velars lost their palatal component and merged with plain velars, while labio-velars remained distinct.
The Satem shift is conveniently illustrated with the word for '100', Proto-Indo-European *k^mtom, which became e.g. Avestan satem (hence the name of the group), Lithuanian s^imtas, 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 Satem group is a paraphyletic group and thus not a phylogenetic unit.