On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 00:42:23 -0000, "Owain"
wrote:

"Andy Hall" wrote
| For somewhere with weans,
| I thought it was bairns where you are - as from the Celtic word,
| 'barn' (for wean).

Encarta has: [Old English bearn. Ultimately from an Indo-European word
meaning "to carry, bear children," which is also the ancestor of English
bear, bring, suffer, and metaphor.]

Etymonline adds: beran ("bear (v.), carry, give birth")

Weans in west of Scotland, bairns in the east, and loons and quines in the
Doric.

Owain


Well... AIUI, the Geordies call them bairns as well.

Interestingly, the Swedish and Norwegian (and possibly Danish) word
for child is 'barn'.



--

..andy

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