Candide

hall0weenjack:

Indo-European language tree.

They seem to have Scottish and Irish Gaelic descending from Gaulish, which in turn shares a common ancestor with Manx. Now that can’t be right!

(Source: awesomejob)

The Neuron. It looks like a tree (duh) so I had a daft idea that instead of classifying (or naming) neurons a, b, c etc we should use the old Gaidhlig alphabet and call them ailm, beith, coll etc. [elm, birch, hazel]… How romantic! the fact we use trees for the alphabet seems so blatantly druidic and celtic-twilight-esque that its hard to believe…!

A. Ailm (Elm)

B. Beith (Birch)

C. Coll (Hazel)

D. Dair (Oak)

E. Eadha (Aspen)

F. Fearn (Alder)

G. Gort (Ivy)

H. Uath (Hawthorn)

I. Iogh (Yew)

L. Luis (Rowan)

M. Muin (Vine)

N. Nuin (Ash)

O. Oir (Gorse)

P. Beith Bhog (Soft* Birch) or Peithe (Guelder Rose)

R. Ruis (Elder)

S. Suil (Willow)

T. Teine (Furze)

U. Ur** (Heather)

They seem fitting epithets for neurons especially considering the ‘dendrites’ (the branch-like structures seen above) also come from the Greek word dendron meaning tree.

* soft refers to the sound, not the tree. P is an voiceless version of B.

** I would say fraoch.