Information AboutSatemization |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CENTUM-SATEM ISOGLOSS | |
| indo-european languages | |
| linguistic typology | |
| isoglosses | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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/ Abashevo / Srubna cultures).]] . The Corded Ware horizon is underlaid in yellow.]]
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. PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN DORSALS
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, 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).
SATEM The Satem languages show the characteristic change of the so-called Proto-Indo-European Palato-velar s into Affricate and Fricative consonants articulated in the front of the mouth. For example, became Sanskrit ''ś'' , Avestan , Russian and Armenian ''s'', Lithuanian ''š'' , and Albanian ''th'' {Link without Title} . At the same time, the protolanguage Velars () and labio-velars () merged in the Satem group, the latter losing their accompanying lip-rounding.
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. CENTUM
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. ORIGINS OF THE SOUND CHANGE 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
LITERATURE
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