पृष्ठम्:The Sanskrit Language (T.Burrow).djvu/२५

l8 SANSKRIT AND INDO-EUROPEAN Hittite must have been very early indeed, it need not have preceded the beginning of these dialectal divergences of Indo- European. Certainly there was no united Indo-European in the late period, which the Indo-Hittite theory demands. It is true that much of the evolution which has taken place in Indo- European outside Hittite, and which must be placed in the period following the separation of Hittite, is evolution common to all the branches (e.g. the development of the feminine) , but this is easily understandable as long as the various dialects remained in contiguity. The important difference now is that instead of thinking simply in the terms of Primitive Indo- European we may now distinguish Early Indo-European of the time previous to the separation of Hittite, and Late Indo- European characterised by certain developments which can be determined, in which different dialects evolving in common were gradually beginning to assume the character of different lan- guages. §4. Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavonic The satem-languages, apart from Indo-Iranian are only known from times much more recent than most of the centum- lan- guages. Further there is the possibility that some ancient members of this group, notably in the Balkan and Danubian regions, have disappeared without record. It is therefore not possible to form a precise idea of the position of Indo-Iranian within the satpm group as a whole at an early period. The only thing that emerges clearly is that there did at one time exist a special relationship between early Indo-Iranian and those dialects of Indo-European which developed eventually into the Baltic and Slavonic languages. Since this is important for the location of the early home of Indo-Iranian, the evidence may be given in some detail. Phonetically the most noteworthy common feature is the change of s to / {> Slav, ch) after k } r , i and u in Indo-Iranian and Slavonic, and after r also in Lithuanian . 1 This is unlikely to be a matter of chance, since the conditions under which the change takes place are so closely parallel. The conclusion which must be drawn is that at one time the two branches were in close geographical proximity, and that this innovation affecting IE $ 1 For examples see p. 79.