Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.6

c14.6

One such subdivision can be distinguished by the variant forms of the ‘k’ palatal, conveniently typified by the word for ‘one hundred’, in the one group represented by the Latin *centum*, in the other by the Sanskrit *satem*. The *centum* languages have on the whole a western distribution, and include the Celtic, Italic, Germanic, and Greek dialects among living tongues, Illyrian and perhaps Ligurian among those now extinct. The exception is also a dead language, Tocharian, known from manuscripts of the first few centuries A.D. found by Stein in Sinkiang, and the only *centum* language in the Orient. The *satem* group includes the Baltic and Slavic languages, Armenian, Iranian, and Sanskrit and its later Indian derivatives. Related to the *centum* group is the Nashili dialect of Hittite in the second millennium B.C., which many linguistic scholars would bring into close relationship with the Italo-Celtic group. Less importance is attached to this *centum-satem* division by contemporary philologists than by those of the past, and another grouping based on the passive and deponent in *-r* has been distinguished, which includes Hittite, Tocharian, Phrygian, Italic and Celtic.