Re: Baby/infant

>>caeruleancentaur wrote:
>> I'm looking for a word for "baby/infant" in a natlang that has not
>> evolved from "indistinct speech" (baba > baby) or from "not
>>speaking" (in-fans > infant).  Does anyone know of such?
Thanks to all who made suggestions.

> Henrik Theiling <theiling@...> wrote:
> German 'Säugling' is from vt. 'säugen', 'to breast-feed', +
> 'ling'. (BTW, vt. 'säugen' is the (lexicalised) causative of
> vi. 'saugen', 'to suck').
I am currently suffering from a bout of otitis externa which must
have addled my brain.  I can't believe I didn't think of this
route!  English has the synonyms "suckle" & "nurse."  And both can
be transitive or intransitive.  Thus, a woman can nurse her child &
a child can nurse from/on (?) his mother.

Senjecas has the verb _pâpa_, to suckle, to nurse.  The following
nouns are found in the lexicon:

1) with root _pap-_
papâmas - wet nurse
pâpes - mammal
pâpos - breast

2) with root _paf-_ (lenition needed)
pafdûûra - wean; dûûra = stop
pâfles - suckling; -l- = diminutive
pafµîdas - mammology

To this latter group I just added _pâflus_, a human suckling.

> According to my dictionary, English also has 'suckling'.
Interestingly, the AHD notes that "suckle" is probably a back-
formation from "suckling."

Thanks again.
Charlie