satem

Satem is a traditional linguistic classification within the Indo-European language family that groups together languages in which the Proto-Indo-European dorsal consonants (palatovelars) shifted into sibilants or related sounds. The distinction is part of the centum-satem split, a historical phonological divide used to describe divergent developments among early Indo-European languages.

The term satem comes from the word for “hundred” in many Satem languages (for example, Sanskrit śata and Avestan satəm), contrasted with centum, from Latin centum. This lexical difference was used as a convenient label for a broader pattern: in Satem languages, the dorsal consonants often turned into sibilants like s, ś, or š, while in Centum languages they largely remained as velars (k, g) or merged with them. The change is not uniform across all Satem languages, but it underlies several well-known correspondences.

Satem languages traditionally include the Indo-Iranian group (Hindi, Persian, Bengali), the Baltic and Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, Lithuanian), Armenian, and sometimes Albanian. Centum languages traditionally include most of the Western and Southern branches such as Latin, Greek, the Germanic and Celtic groups, and Tocharian. The split is a rough areal feature rather than a precise phylogenetic boundary; many languages exhibit intermediate or mixed characteristics due to contact and later developments.

In modern linguistics, the centum-satem distinction is used more as a historical descriptive tool than as a strict classification, acknowledging that the Indo-European landscape is complex and not easily partitioned into two rigid groups.