Re: wergild

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 00:35:38 GMT


David Dunham on 'cró':
> (I find it telling that the Irish had a one-syllable word for wergild...)

You mean, that it's so deeply embedded in the subconscious that it comes bubbling right out of the linguistic segment of the Irish brain along with ma and pa? This is on the basis of a whole three minute's research, so I'm just hazarding a guess here, but perhaps it's because it's based on/the same as the word for 'blood'?

Cheers,
Alex.


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