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Languages of the Indo-European family are classified as either centum languages or satem languages according to how the (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 sound (Latin centum was pronounced with initial /k/), but in satem languages, they often began with (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 Velar consonant, 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.J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (1997), p. 461.
| labiovelars | Merged in satem languages |
| Merged in centum languages | velars |
| palatovelars | assibilation in satem languages |
The centum–satem division forms an isogloss in synchronic descriptions of Indo-European languages. It is no longer thought that the PIE 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.
The Anatolian branch probably falls outside the centum–satem division; for instance, the Luwian language indicates that all three dorsal consonant rows survived separately in Proto-Anatolian. , originally proposed in The centumisation observed in Hittite language is therefore assumed to have occurred only after the breakup of Proto-Anatolian into separate languages. However, Craig Melchert proposes that proto-Anatolian is indeed a centum language.
While Tocharian is generally regarded as a centum language, it is a special case, as it has merged all three of the PIE dorsal series (originally nine separate consonants) into a single phoneme, *k. According to some scholars, that complicates the classification of Tocharian within the centum–satem model. However, as Tocharian has replaced some PIE labiovelars with the labiovelar-like, non-original sequence *ku, it has been proposed that labiovelars remained distinct in Proto-Tocharian, which would place Tocharian in the centum group (assuming that Proto-Tocharian lost palatovelars while labiovelars were still phonemically distinct).
In the centum languages, PIE roots reconstructed with palatovelars developed into forms with plain velars. For example, in the PIE numeral * 'hundred', the initial palatovelar * became a plain velar /k/, as in Latin centum (originally pronounced with /k/, although most modern descendants of Latin have a sibilant there), Greek language (he)katon, Welsh language cant, Tocharian B kante. In the Germanic languages, the /k/ developed regularly by Grimm's law to become /h/, as in Old English hund(red).
Centum languages also retained the distinction between the PIE labiovelar row (*, *, *) and the plain velars. Historically, it was unclear whether the labiovelar row represented an innovation by a process of labialisation, or whether it was inherited from the parent language (but lost in the satem branches); current mainstream opinion favours the latter possibility. Labiovelars as single phonemes (for example, ) as opposed to biphonemes (for example, ) are attested in Greek (the Linear B series), Italic (Latin ), Germanic (Gothic alphabet hwair and qairþra ) and Celtic (Ogham ceirt ) (in the so-called P-Celtic languages developed into /p/; a similar development took place in the Osco-Umbrian branch of Italic and sometimes Mycenaean Greek and Germanic). The boukólos rule, however, states that a labiovelar reduces to a plain velar when it occurs next to or .
The centum–satem division refers to the development of the dorsal series of sounds only at the time of the earliest separation of PIE into the of its individual daughter branches; it does not apply to any later analogous developments within any branch. For example, the palatalization of Latin to or (often later ) in some Romance languages (which means that modern French language and Spanish language cent and cien are pronounced with initial /s/ and /θ/ respectively) is satem-like, as is the merger of with in the Gaelic languages; such later changes do not affect the classification of the languages as centum.
Linguist Wolfgang P. Schmid argued that some Proto-language like Proto-Baltic were initially centum, but gradually became satem due to their exposure to the latter.
In the satem languages, the reflexes of the presumed PIE palatovelars are typically fricative or affricate consonants, articulated further forward in the mouth. For example, the PIE root *, "hundred", the initial palatovelar normally became a sibilant s or ʃ, as in Avestan language satem, Persian language sad, Sanskrit śatam, sto in all modern Slavic languages languages, Old Church Slavonic sъto, Latvian language simts, Lithuanian šimtas (Lithuanian is between Centum and Satem languages). Another example is the Slavic prefix sъ(n)- ("with"), which appears in Latin, a centum language, as co(n)-; conjoin is cognate with Russian soyuz ("union"). An s is found for PIE in such languages as Latvian language, Avestan, Russian language and Armenian, but Lithuanian and Sanskrit have ( š in Lithuanian, ś in Sanskrit transcriptions). For more reflexes, see the phonetic correspondences section below; note also the effect of the ruki sound law.
"Incomplete satemisation" may also be evidenced by remnants of labial elements from labiovelars in Balto-Slavic, including Lithuanian ungurys "eel" < * and dygus "pointy" < *. A few examples are also claimed in Indo-Iranian, such as Sanskrit guru "heavy" < *, kulam "herd" < *, but they may instead be secondary developments, as in the case of kuru "make" < * in which it is clear that the ku- group arose in Vedic Sanskrit language. It is also asserted that in Sanskrit and Balto-Slavic, in some environments, resonant consonants (denoted by /R/) become /iR/ after plain velars but /uR/ after labiovelars.
Some linguists argue that the AlbanianMatasović, Ranko (2012). "A Grammatical Sketch of Albanian for students of Indo-European". Page 13:"It has been claimed that the difference between the three PIE series of gutturals is preserved in Albanian before front vowels. This thesis, sometimes referred to as Pedersen’s law, is often contested, but still supported by the majority of Albanologists (e. g. Hamp, Huld, and Ölberg). In examining this view, one should bear in mind that it seems certain that there were at least two palatalizations in Albanian: the first palatalization, whereby labiovelars were palatalized to s and z before front vowels and *y, and the second palatalization, whereby all the remaining velars (*k and *g) were palatalized to q and gj, in the same environment. PIE palatalized velars are affected by neither palatalization (they yield Alb. th, d, dh, cf. Alb. thom ‘I say’ < *k’ensmi, cf. OInd. śa m s- ‘praise’, L c e nse o ‘reckon’). It may be that th yielded f before a consonant, if Alb. ënfle ‘sleep’ is from *nthle < *n-k’loye- (cf. G klínō ‘recline’). " and Armenian branches are also to be classified as satem, (2025). 9783110540369, De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9783110540369 whereas other linguists argue that they show evidence of separate treatment of all three dorsal consonant rows and so may not have merged the labiovelars with the plain velars, unlike the canonical satem branches.
Assibilation of velars in certain phonetic environments is a common phenomenon in language development. Consequently, it is sometimes hard to establish firmly the languages that were part of the original satem diffusion and the ones affected by secondary assibilation later. While extensive documentation of Latin and Old Swedish, for example, shows that the assibilation found in French and Swedish language were later developments, there are not enough records of the extinct Dacian language and Thracian languages to settle conclusively when their satem-like features originated.
In Armenian, some assert that /kʷ/ is distinguishable from /k/ before front vowels.Holger Pedersen, KZ 36 (1900) 277–340; Norbert Jokl, in: Mélanges linguistiques offerts à M. Holger Pedersen (1937) 127–161. Martin Macak (2018) asserts that the merger of * kʷ and * k occurred "within the history of Proto-Armenian itself". (2025). 9783110521610, de Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9783110521610
In Albanian, the three original dorsal rows have remained distinguishable when before historic front vowels.
The doubt introduced in that passage suggests he already suspected the "afterclap" u was not that but was part of an original sound.
There was no more mention of labialized and non-labialized language groups after Brugmann changed his mind regarding the labialized velars. The labio-velars now appeared under that name as one of the five series of (Explosivae), comprising the "Labial consonant stops", the dental stops", the "palatal stops", the "velar consonant stops", and the "labiovelar stops". It was Brugmann who pointed out that labiovelars had merged into the velars in the satem group,Brugmann & Delbrück 1897 p. 616. "... die Vertretung der qʷ-Laute ... ist wie die der q-Laute, ..." accounting for the coincidence of the discarded non-labialized group with the satem group.
The proposed phylogeny division of Indo-European into satem and centum "sub-families" was further weakened by the identification of other Indo-European running across the centum–satem boundary, some of which seemed of equal or greater importance in the development of daughter languages."... an early dialect split of the type indicated by the centum–satem contrast should be expected to be reflected in other high-order dialect distinctions as well, a pattern which is not evident from an analysis of shared features among eastern and western languages." Consequently, since the early 20th century at least, the centum–satem isogloss has been considered an early areal feature rather than a true phylogenetic division of daughter languages.
On the above interpretation, the split between the centum and satem groups would not have been a straightforward loss of an articulatory feature (palatalization or labialization). Instead, the uvulars (the "plain velars" of the traditional reconstruction) would have been fronted to velars across all branches. In the satem languages, it caused a chain shift, and the existing velars (traditionally "palatovelars") were shifted further forward to avoid a merger, becoming palatal: > ; > . In the centum languages, no chain shift occurred, and the uvulars merged into the velars. The delabialisation in the satem languages would have occurred later, in a separate stage.
Related to the uvular theory is the glottalic theory. Both these theories have some support if PIE was spoken near the Caucasus, where both uvular and glottal consonants are common and many languages have a paucity of distinctive vowels.
Antoine Meillet (1937) proposed that the original rows were the labiovelars and palatovelars, with the plain velars being of the palatovelars in some cases, such as depalatalisation before a resonant.
The etymologies establishing the presence of velars in the parent language are explained as artefacts of either borrowing between daughter languages or of false etymologies. Having only labiovelars and palatovelars would also parallel languages such as Russian or Irish, where consonants can be either broad and unpalatalized, or slender and palatalized, and is also seen in some Northwest Caucasian languages.
Other scholars who assume two dorsal rows in PIE include Kuryłowicz (1935) and Lehmann (1952), as well as Frederik Kortlandt and others.Such as Szemerényi (1995), Sihler (1995) The argument is that PIE had only two series, a simple velar and a labiovelar. The satem languages palatalized the plain velar series in most positions, but the plain velars remained in some environments: typically reconstructed as before or after /u/, after /s/, and before /r/ or /a/ and also before /m/ and /n/ in some Baltic dialects. The original allophonic distinction was disturbed when the labiovelars were merged with the plain velars. That produced a new phonemic distinction between palatal and plain velars, with an unpredictable alternation between palatal and plain in related forms of some roots (those from original plain velars) but not others (those from original labiovelars). Subsequent analogical processes generalised either the plain or palatal consonant in all forms of a particular root. The roots in which the plain consonant was generalized are those traditionally reconstructed as having "plain velars" in the parent language in contrast to "palatovelars".
Oswald Szemerényi (1990) considers the palatovelars as an innovation, proposing that the "preconsonantal palatals probably owe their origin, at least in part, to a lost palatal vowel" and a velar was palatalised by a following vowel subsequently lost. The palatal row would therefore postdate the original velar and labiovelar rows, but Szemerényi is not clear whether that would have happened before or after the breakup of the parent-language (in a table showing the system of stops "shortly before the break-up", he includes palatovelars with a question mark after them).
Woodhouse (1998; 2005) introduced a "bitectal" notation, labelling the two rows of dorsals as k1, g1, g1h and k2, g2, g2h. The first row represents "prevelars", which developed into either palatovelars or plain velars in the satem group but just into plain velars into the centum group; the second row represents "backvelars", which developed into either labiovelars or plain velars in the centum group but just plain velars in the satem group.R. Woodhouse, Indogermanische Forschungen (2010), 127–134.
The following are arguments that have been listed in support of a two-series hypothesis:
Arguments in support of three series:
(2025). 9783110540369, De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9783110540369 (2025). 9783110540369, De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9783110540369 Labiovelars are for the most part differentiated from all other Indo-European velar series before front vowels (where they developed into s and z ultimately), but they merge with the "pure" (back) velars elsewhere. The palatal velar series, consisting of PIE * ḱ and the merged * ģ and ģʰ, usually developed into th and dh, but were depalatalized to merge with the back velars when in contact with . Because the original PIE tripartite distinction between dorsals is preserved in such reflexes, Demiraj argues Albanian is therefore to be considered, like Luwian, neither centum nor satem but at the same time it has a "satem-like" realization of the palatal dorsals in most cases. Thus PIE * ḱ, * kʷ and * k become th (Alb. thom "I say" < PIE * ḱeHsmi), s (Alb. si "how" < PIE. kʷih1, cf. Latin quī), and q (/c/: pleq "elderly" < *plak-i < PIE * plh2-ko-), respectively. (2025). 9783110540369, de Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9783110540369
History of the concept
Schleicher's single guttural series
August Schleicher, an early Indo-Europeanist, in Part I, "Phonology", of his major work, the 1871 Compendium of Comparative Grammar of the Indogermanic Language, published a table of original momentane Laute, or "stops", which has only a single velar series (Reihe), *k, *g, *gʰ, under the name of Gutturalen. He identifies four palatals (*ḱ, *ǵ, *ḱʰ, *ǵʰ) but hypothesises that they came from the gutturals along with the nasal *ń and the spirant *ç.
Brugmann's labialized and unlabialized language groups
Karl Brugmann, in his 1886 work Grundriss (abbreviated Grundriss), promotes the palatals to the original language, recognising two stores of Explosivae, or "stops", the palatal (*ḱ, *ǵ, *ḱʰ, *ǵʰ) and the velar each of which was simplified to three articulations even in the same work. In the same work, Brugmann notices among die velaren Verschlusslaute, "the velar stops", a major contrast between reflexes of the same words in different daughter languages. In some, the velar is marked with a "u-articulation", which he terms a "labialization", in accordance with the prevailing theory that the labiovelars were velars labialised by combination with a u at some later time and were not among the original consonants. He thus divides languages into "the language group with labialization" and "the language group without labialization", which basically correspond to what would later be termed the centum and satem groups:. The quotation given here is a translation by Joseph Wright, 1888.
Von Bradke's centum and satem groups
In 1890, Peter von Bradke published Concerning Method and Conclusions of Aryan (Indogermanic) Studies, in which he identified the same division, as did Brugmann, but he defined it in a different way. He said that the original Indo-Europeans had two kinds of "guttural sounds", the "guttural or velar, and palatal series", each of which were aspirated and unaspirated. The velars were to be viewed as gutturals in a "narrow sense". They were a "pure K-sound". Palatals were "frequently with subsequent labialization". The latter distinction led him to divide the "palatal series" into a "group as fricative" (Spirant) and a "pure K-sound", typified by the words satem and centum respectively. Later in the book he speaks of an original " centum group", from which on the north of the Black and Caspian Seas the " satem tribes" dissimilated among the "nomadic peoples" or "steppe peoples", distinguished by further palatalization of the palatal gutturals.
Brugmann's identification of labialized and centum
By the 1897 edition of Grundriss, Brugmann (and Delbrück) had adopted Von Bradke's view: "The Proto-Indo-European palatals ... appear in Greek, Italic, Celtic and Germanic as a rule as K-sounds, as opposed to in Aryan, Armenian, Albanian, Balto-Slavic, Phrygian and Thracian ... for the most part sibilants.""Die Palatallaute der idg. Urzeit ... erscheinen in Griech, Ital., Kelt., Germ. in der Regel als K-Laute, dagegen im Ar., Arm., Alb., Balt-Slav., denen sich Phrygisch und Thrakisch ... meistens als Zischlaute." Brugmann & Delbrück 1897 p. 542.
Discovery of Anatolian and Tocharian
When von Bradke first published his definition of the centum and satem sound changes, he viewed his classification as "the oldest perceivable division" in Indo-European, which he elucidated as "a division between eastern and western cultural provinces" (Kulturkreise). The proposed split was undermined by the decipherment of Hittite language and Tocharian in the early 20th century. Both languages show no satem-like assibilation in spite of being located in the satem area.K. Shields, "A New Look at the Centum/Satem Isogloss", Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung (1981).
Alternative interpretations
Different realizations
The actual pronunciation of the velar series in PIE is not certain. One current idea is that the "palatovelars" were in fact simple velars , and the "plain velars" were pronounced farther back, perhaps as : .Kümmel, M.J. (2007), Konsonantenwandel. Bausteine zu einer Typologie des Lautwandels und ihre Konsequenzen für die vergleichende Rekonstruktion. Wiesbaden: Reichert. Cited in Prescott, C., Pharyngealization and the three dorsal stop series of Proto-Indo-European. If labiovelars were just labialization forms of the "plain velars", they would have been pronounced but the pronunciation of the labiovelars as would still be possible in uvular theory, if the satem languages first shifted the "palatovelars" then later merged the "plain velars" and "labiovelars".
The uvular theory is supported by the following evidence.
Only two velar series
The presence of three dorsal rows in the proto-language has been the mainstream hypothesis since at least the mid-20th century. There remain, however, several alternative proposals with just two rows in the parent language, which describe either "satemisation" or "centumisation", as the emergence of a new phonematic category rather than the disappearance of an inherited one.
(2025). 9783110540369, de Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9783110540369 and Armenian are said to show evidence of different reflexes for the three different series. Evidence from the Anatolian language Luwian language attests a three-way velar distinction > z (probably ); > k; > ku (probably ). There is no evidence of any connection between Luwian and any satem language (labiovelars are still preserved, the ruki sound law is absent) and the Anatolian branch split off very early from PIE. The three-way distinction must be reconstructed for the parent language. (That is a strong argument in favor of the traditional three-way system; in response, proponents of the two-way system have attacked the underlying evidence by claiming that it "hinges upon especially difficult or vague or otherwise dubious etymologies" (such as Sihler 1995).) Melchert originally claimed that the change > z was unconditional and subsequently revised the assertion to a conditional change occurring only before front vowels, /j/, or /w/; however, that does not fundamentally alter the situation, as plain-velar apparently remains as such in the same context. Melchert also asserts, contrary to Sihler, the etymological distinction between and in the relevant positions is well-established.
Phonetic correspondences in daughter languages
The following table summarizes the outcomes of the reconstructed PIE palatals and labiovelars in the various daughter branches, both centum and satem. (The outcomes of the "plain velars" can be assumed to be the same as those of the palatals in the centum branches and those of the labiovelars in the satem branches.)
See also
Notes
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