"centum"/"satem" "exceptions" [was Re: Northwest IE attributes]

[JoatSimeon at aol.com]

>frank at uiowa.edu writes:

>In the case of <burg>, et. al. I once read that they believed that the
>referential object to which it once applied as an Iron Age "hill-fort",
>although I don't recall the exact citation.

-- *bergh.  There are derivatives in the Germanic language (eg., OHG burg,
'fort', or Gothic baurgs, 'city, town'.  Homeric Greek (I think -- possible
spelling error) burghos, and definitely Armenian burgn.

There's also a series of related terms with meanings like "hard" or "strong";
Old Latin fortus/Lating fortis, Sanskrit brmhati ("fortifies"), and Tocharian
prakar 'hard, solid'.

I think it's fairly obvious how meaning would shift back and forth here,
since a defensive fortified wall was virtually a defining characteristic of a
city in ancient times.