[ZULU]

Linguists in the past have divided the Indo-European family of languages into two large sub-groups: the Centum Languages and the Satem Languages. These names come from the words used for "hundred" in each group, but the similarities are supposed based on many other factors as well.

The Italic, Germanic, Gallic, and Greek Languages, as well as Tocharian A and B are believed to be Centum languages, while the Balto-Slavic and Iranian Languages and Sanskrit are Satem Languages.

Some earlier Indo-European Languages like Hittie, don't fall into either group. Or so I was told in my College Classical Greek classes.

[Cronos]

Linguists in the past have divided the Indo-European family of languages into two large sub-groups: the Centum Languages and the Satem Languages. These names come from the words used for "hundred" in each group, but the similarities are supposed based on many other factors as well.

Thanks! I've read about the Centem and Satem bits before. So, maybe the geographical issues are correct -- viz. the Slavic languages did break off from the Irani-Indic languages later than German.
But, I speak French, German and know Latin and Sanskrit and a bit of Polish (serious history buff) and it does seem to me like German and Sanskrit have more in common with each other than Polish. Of course I haven't studied Polish or other Slavic languages in depth, so can't really be sure.