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ArchivesRe: Cara - Irish name?
in reply to a message by Perrine
If it does indeed mean 'friend', then all that proves is that Gaelic is an Indo-European language; which we knew. And, since Latin was only recently discontinued as a liturgical language and a school subject, I would bet on the familiarity of carus/cara = dear, beloved as a factor in the word's usage as a name in Ireland. Of course, Cara has also been used elsewhere, but there isn't much connection between Italian and English name usage so my bet is on Latin.
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Replies
thank you!
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But Irish was taught along side Latin, and indeed Latin was taught via Irish for a while, as were all school subjects. "Cara" is a common Irish word, and the Irish language is taught at both primary and secondary level here. Latin has not been widely taught or used in Mass for decades. In a bilingual society, if you meet someone with a name which is a word in one of the languages spoken in that society, like Cara, the assumption that is a word from one of the two official languages is usually safe.
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