The words for ‘one hundred’ in Indo-European languages exemplify an ancient sound change – the centum/satem split (the Latin and Avestan words for ‘one hundred’ respectively).
Proto-Indo-European has been reconstructed as having three ‘series’ of velar consonants – palatal velars, plain velars and labiovelars (*kj, *k and *kw respectively). However, in nearly all daughter languages, these three series collapsed into two. Languages on the centum-side of the split merged the palatal and plain series to be left with *k and *kw and those on the satem-side merged the labiovelars and plain series to give *kj and *k.
It was thought to be the case that the centum/satem split represented an ancient dialect division of Indo-European languages. Most centum-languages are found in the west whilst most satem-languages are found in the east. However, a number of problems with this view exist. Tocharian is a centum-language but is (or was) the furthest east of any Indo-European language. There is also evidence that some languages kept the three series distinct in certain environments longer than others, e.g. Luvian (an extinct IE language spoken in Anatolia).
This, plus other evidence, suggests that the centum/satem labels are better viewed as descriptive shorthands which are used to label mergers which occurred independently in various Indo-European daughter languages (although this view raises problems of its own as well!).
In Basque, decisions are also taken but what’s cool is that erabaki(decision) is the factitive from of verb ebaki(to cut): so when you decide, in Basque you get cut ie. somebody in your head cut down the options just to one.
This same idea of the head being like a separate part can be found when talking about oneself: in Basque we don’t say myself, we literally say my head:
I ask myself why = Neure buruari galdetzen diot zergatik = lit. I ask my head why.
“Decide” has a similar etymology, from Latin decido “I cut off, I decide”, from de- “off, away” + caedo “I cut”
Same roots as “deciduous”?
Not quite. Deciduous is descended from a different verb. Decide is from dēcīdō, from caedō, while deciduous comes from dēcidō “I fall down”, “I fall off”, from cadō “I fall”. So, they were phonetically similar, but one had a long i in the second syllable and the other had a short i in that syllable
This is a long read, but definitely worth it. This is an elaborate and more accurate version of what I tell people, who claim that language (any language) is deteriorating: why don’t you go speak Proto-Indo-European?
