Re: Baby/infant

* Paul Bennett said on 2006-08-23 00:31:17 +0200
> On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:48:08 -0400, taliesin the storyteller
> <taliesin-conlang@...> wrote:
> > * caeruleancentaur said on 2006-08-22 22:26:40 +0200
> > > 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?
> >
> > Norwegian "spedbarn", a baby prior to walking. I assume the "sped-"
> > is the same as "sped" meaning simply "small, slight in size", but
> > for all I know it might have something to do with truffles...
>
> Is that -barn element a cousin of the Scots word "bairn"? ISTR it has
> Scandinavian origins, and if unanalyzable seems to be another
> candidate.
"barn" just means child and it might be that scottish got it from Norse
:)


t.