Centum

Distribution of centum (blue) languages and satem (red), as well as other languages independent like bullying and anatolia

The centum languages are the Indo-European languages that share the non-palatalization of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European phonemes /*k/, /*g/, /*g ^h/. The term centum [kentum] comes from the Latin word for '100', which derives from the Indo-European *kntom and was borrowed because Latin is a language not palatalizing. According to this criterion, the Indo-European languages are differentiated into centum languages (non-palatalizing or "western") and satem languages (palatalizing or " 34;oriental").

Thus, the languages that maintain the phoneme /*k/ (centum is pronounced kentum realized as a velar consonant) belong to the western branches of Indo-European, compared to which they do not keep /*k/ because they palatalize it into /č/, /š/ or /s/ (see satem).

History

The division between centum and satem languages was considered in early Indo-European linguistics to coincide with the two main groups. However, today it is accepted that the division does not adequately classify the Indo-European languages, because among the oriental languages with common features there are centum languages such as the Tocharian languages. It is currently accepted that, although this aspect is of some interest, it is not useful for the internal classification of Indo-European languages, since it seems to be chronologically subsequent to the diversification of Indo-European into various branches, having been contagious from the change from one branch to another.

Furthermore, the original idea that the Indo-European family divided into two branches early has been rejected by the available evidence. It is generally accepted that it divided into seven branches as shown in the following phylogenetic tree and the palatalization can be found in the Greco-Armenian branch and the Anatolian two centum-satem branches and the one made up of Albanian and Germanic.

Centum languages