From: Tavi
Message: 69582
Date: 2012-05-11
>As proposed by J. Jud (quoted by Delamarre), the Gaulish work is actually related to a homonymous root 'to work' (e.g. Greek érgon). This is also found in uergo-bretus 'a k. of magistrate'.
> > Yesterday I overlooked Valtellinese <verca> 'heather' which also
> > requires Illyrian vocalism, *wraika:, thus
> > coming from pre-Ligurian substrate. To you, no doubt, an additional
> > stratum is an unnecessary complication. To me, it is a necessary one.
>
> There's a homonymous Old French verge 'unity of land measure', still
> alive on Canadian French. Delamarre quotes a Gaulish collective form
> *uercaria 'cultivated land' as the source of dialectal French
> verchère, Provençal verquièra 'cultivated land near the
> dwelling place; dowry, heritage', attested in written records (8th
> century) as auercaria < *are-uercaria.
>
> For the etymology of the Gaulish word, Delamarre (following Veyndres)
> proposes a link to Welsh cywarch, Breton koarc'h 'hemp' < Celtic
> *ko-werk(k)o- and German Werg 'tow' < Germanic *wirka-/*wrika-. And from
> the Valtellinese evidence we can also posit a Ligurian form *werka
> 'heather'. This would be a root *werk'-o- with a velar glottalic stop
> which would yield a geminate in P-Celtic (no Kilday's Law here, I'm
> afraid).
>