[sah-tuh
m] 
| 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. |
| sa·tem (sä'təm) adj. Designating those Indo-European languages, including the Indo-Iranian, Armenian, and Balto-Slavic subfamilies, in which original palatal velar stops became fricatives (as k' > s or š) and labiovelar stops became plain velars (as kw > k). [Avestan satəm, hundred (a word whose initial sound illustrates the change); see dek  in Indo-European roots.] |