| 释义 |
‖ centum|ˈkɛntəm|
Also kentum.
[L. centum hundred.]
1. A hundred: see cent.
2. Philol. [from its pronunc. with (k), as opposed to satem.] A name given by philologists to one, chiefly western, group of Indo-European languages, distinguished by their use of velar consonants where the corresponding sounds in cognate words in the eastern group (cf. satem) are sibilants.
1901P. Giles Short Man. Compar. Philol. (ed. 2) 24 As the most characteristic sound is found in the word for ‘hundred’, the two sections are named the centum and the satem section respectively. 1912J. Wright Compar. Gram. Greek Lang. vi. 95 The former group [Greek, Italic, Keltic, Germanic] is generally called the centum- and the latter [Aryan, Armenian, Albanian, Baltic-Slavonic] the satəm-group of languages, where Latin centum and Zend satəm represent the original Indg. word *kmtóm, hundred. 1926J. R. R. Tolkien in Year's Work in Eng. Stud. 1924 27 The centum-satəm division becomes more, not less, puzzling, as does the whole question of the interrelations of the surviving Indo-European languages. 1932W. L. Graff Language x. 365 The languages in which I.-E. k, g, etc., are preserved as gutturals are called kentum languages, the others satem languages. 1939E. Prokosch Compar. Germ. Gram. 43 Kentum and Satem..It is customary to distinguish two groups of Indo-European languages according to the treatment of the Indo-European palatals: they became sibilants in the eastern group, but appear as velars in the western group. 1952O. R. Gurney Hittites vi. 119 The ‘centum’ group (comprising Latin, Greek, Celtic, and the various Germanic languages). |