What is the relevance of the centum-satem isogloss?

An “isogloss” is a geographic boundary of a linguistic feature.

“Centum-Satem” is the Indo-European language family.  Centum includes Germanic, Celtic, and Italic. Satem includes Iranian and Balto-Slavic.

Greek, Sanskrit, French, German, English and other Indo and European languages share commonalities and are thought to be derived from these earlier parent languages.

the first phase of the government’s plan for settlement was building the transcontinental railroad. the railroad provided a way to bring settlers and manufactured goods west and ship their agricultural and mining produce east. the transcontinental railroad was an essential artery for rapid development of the frontier.

the second phase of the government’s plan was a liberal land distribution policy that made it possible for many people to homestead. with these two key elements—transportation and cheap land—the government rapidly achieved its goal of persuading people to move west, settle on farms, and push back the frontier.

a. themes: sub fields