From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 3178
Date: 2000-08-16
----- Original Message -----From: smithSent: Wednesday, August 16, 2000 9:00 PMSubject: [tied] ChildrenBairn is a Germanic word (OE bearn, Goth./OHG/Scandinavian barn 'child, son' < *barna-n) which happens to survive in Northern and Scottish English. As far as I can tell, it is related to the verb bear in the sense 'give birth to' (Gmc. *ber- < *bHer-e-), so that *barnan can be analysed as *bHor+*-no-. Latvian bErns (I think Lith. bérnas 'young man, farm-hand' may be a Latvian loanword -- if Sergei is on-line, he will certainly know) is probably related, though I'm not sure about the details.PiotrAndrew observed: 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?