satem

American  

[sah-tuhm] / ˈsɑ təm /

adjective

1. belonging to or consisting of those branches of the Indo-European family in which alveolar or palatal fricatives, as the sounds (s) or (sh), developed in ancient times from Proto-Indo-European palatal stops: the satem branches are Indo-Iranian, Armenian, Slavic, Baltic, and Albanian.

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satem British  

/ ˈseɪ-, ˈsɑːtəm /

adjective

1. denoting or belonging to the group of Indo-European languages in which original velar stops became palatalized (k > s or / ʃ /). These languages belong to the Indic, Iranian, Armenian, Slavonic, Baltic, and Albanian branches and are traditionally regarded as the E group Compare centum

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Etymology

Origin of satem

1900–05; < Avestan satəm hundred (cognate with Latin centum; see centum ²), exemplifying in s- the outcome of Indo-European palatal stops characteristic of the group

Example Sentences

We can trace our Bandkeramik and Schnurkeramik and Urfirnissmalerei and all that sort of technological idiom, across the map, as we can trace the centum and satem languages.

From The Unity of Civilization by Various