Does anyone know why there are so many words for
"child" in modern IE languages? German "kind" is not
obviously related to English "child", neither are french
"enfant", spanish "bambino" or portuguese
?"crianca" obviously related. Only the slavic languages preserve some
sort of uniformity, with a "det" root being seemingly
universal.
I take my kids to Scotland and the Celts call them
"bairns". I take them to Riga and the locals call them
"berns" (macron over the e). The pronounciation is identical as far as
I can hear. Is there any connection or is this coincidence?
Andrew
(admittedly, I cheated a bit. "bairns" is plural and
"berns" is singular).