They went to do what?

They went “do aithrigi a peccad”, that is, “for penance / penitence / repentence / repenting of their sins”. The word “aithrige” (dative “aithrigi”) is the verbal noun of the Old Irish verb “ad·eirreig”, which had two somewhat different meanings: (1) repeats, and (2) changes. The latter meaning was extended to include “changes for the better; improves”.

The verbal noun “aithrige” takes the idea of “changing for the better” one step further so that it ends up implying a change of attitude, and thereby an attempt to undo, repair, rectify a mistake.

Interestingly, the Old Irish verb “ad·eirreig” bifurcates during the history of the language, so that today in Modern Irish we have both:

1) “athraigh = changes” and its verbal noun “athrú = changing, change”; and

2) “aithrí = penance; repentence”.

In any case, the Three Monks apparently went into the wilderness in order to undo their sins before God by doing penance, not in order to repeat them!

in the hopper

The Monks have six new languages in the hopper, waiting to be processed. But there's also some structural work underway on their polyglot site. Once the work is done, more versions will appear!

another triad

The shrine of Tigh nam Bodach

Nó an bhfuil seisear acu ann? / Or are they six?

The Monks like them!

tripod

The tripod is the most stable of structures ... except in human relations.

The Monks need a graphic artist.

from the Moone High Cross:

other monks

Thai Style

- or Sri Lanka??

Uto-Aztecan, North to South

Michael Dunn and colleagues just published a paper in Nature that systematically challenges the theory of universal grammar long propounded by Noam Chomsky and his acolytes. This is the theory that says we all learn language effortless as children because we have a built-in “language organ”, a set of instructions that Pinker dubbed “the language instinct”.

The paper by Dunn et al., “Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order universals”, was summarized in this piece in Wired.

click to enlarge

The research involved the analysis of four widely separated language families, one of which is the Uto-Aztecan of North and Central America. The Monks are pleased to note that they span the full extent of that family's geographical range, from Shoshoni in the north (Idaho) all the way to Nawat (also known as Pipil) in the south (El Salvador). In the middle they also have: Western Mono (California), Hopi (Arizona), Classical Nahuatl (México) and the contemporary Nahuatl of Huasteca (México). They look forward, as always, to adding further representatives of the Uto-Aztecan family!