Re: [tied] Satem

----- Original Message -----

From: niffabs

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, April 19, 2002 7:20 PM

Subject: [tied] Re: Agriculture and IE

> The term "satemised" would seem to imply that the satem group split from the centum group. I would be interested to know what theories there are presently as to
how the centum/satem split might have occured, as there seems to be no obvious connection?

 

In my view, the "centum" systems are closer to the primitive state affairs, and the shift of *k^ > *c (palatal stop/affricate) and *kW > k is a common innovation of the Satem languages. This view accounts for the geographical distribution of the Satem branches (almost continuous even now).

 

> I have seen the suggestion elsewhere that the PIE word might have started with ksh as in kshatriya - the centum group then dropping the sh, and the satem group dropping the k. There is a case of the sh being dropped where many people in present day Punjab would say Khatti rather than Kshatriya. Any thoughts on this would be interesting.

 

This is unlikely. First, PIE had clusters of the type *k^s or *kWs, and their development is on the whole different from that of *k^ alone. Secondly, the early Satem reflexes of the three rows of stops *k^, *g^ and *g^H were not fricatives but affricates, preserved as such in Nuristani, and partly in Armenian and Indo-Aryan:

 

PIE      Nur.     Arm.      Skt.

*k^      ts       s         s'

*g^      dz       ts <c>    dz' <j>

*g^H     dz       dz <j>    h  (from *dz'H)

 

This (and more, e.g. the phonetic shape of loans from early Satem dialects in Finno-Ugric) is consistent with the usual theory that the change proceded like this: [k] > [c] (palatal stop) > [ts'] (parallelly for the corresponding voiced and breathy voiced series), from which the attested reflexes ([s'], [ts], [s], [S], [þ]) can be derived easily via commonplace trajectories of phonetic development. If you want a typological parallel, there is a rather similar range of reflexes of palatalised /k/ in the Romance languages (cf. It. & Rom. tS-, Sp. þ-, Fr., Port. & dial. Sp. s- in the word "centum", while Sardinian retains the original k-), the difference being that the Romance palatalisations were conditioned by a following front vowel while the satem shift was not restricted to a specific context.

 

Piotr