Piotr said:
>The bulk of the family would have formed two loose dialectal clusters:
something that could >be termed pre-proto-Satem (perhaps not "satemised"
yet) in the east and proto-Western IE ..
How late is Satemisation? There are two events, the collapsing of *kW and
*k, and the palatalisation of *k'. These could be at different times, and
the latter could be a wave phenomenon after dialects spread, while the first
occurs before the satem dialects break up.
Do we have any clues as to a date, or an order of events? I can think only
of the later law of palatals in Sanskrit, which does not distinguish between
*kw and *k, so the collapse of *kW and *k must be before the collapse of *e
and *a and *o
Peter