i miiight've just found out something cool (other than that "merle" is the old word for "blackbird").

so in swedish and stuff "anda" means "breath, spirit". and in icelandic, faroese etc -aða is a verb/adjective ending. and this "proto indo-european" list said:

anda, -aða = breathe, living creature

so are these related???? i always thought that stuff like past-tense (-ed) was probably a fallen-off bit of a verb (-dead, as in the status is "dead, not applicable anymore") for example...