Is Albanian really a Satem language?

[Devils Advocate]

Sorry for Necroing this thread, but couldnt resist, we albanians in Macedonia (Sharr mountains/polog) use Gjep (not only a few, but all of us). We also use -Nanë madhe- (not many though) which is translated to greatmother , i.e grandmother.

 

[RobertColumbia]

What "Centum" and "Satem" really means is the treatment of the 'palatovelar' series:

*ḱ,

*ǵ,

*ǵʰ

In the Centum languages, these become merged with the plain velars (that is, they are treated exactly the same), while in the Satem languages, the palatovelars become fricatives, like *s and *z. But this is not universal, for instance compare Latvian "simts", "suns" with Lithuanian "šimtas", "šuo" - meaning "hundred" and "dog", respectively (I might say "hound" instead, because this is the cognate of the Latvian/Lithuanian words, and also actually Centum/Satem-sensitive because the sound in question here is a common *ḱ....
"canis" > "qen"
"centum" > "qind"
...

Good point about hound, thanks! English "hound" and "hundred" are Centum forms that have been further modified by Grimm's Law of Germanic sound changes. Hence, these words are direct cognates with Latin "canis" and "centum". This is one of the reasons why valid historical linguistics research requires consideration of all sound changes that have affected the languages that you are studying. You cannot just take one sound shift and assume that it will give you the answers that you want.