I love the English language. This is the sign for the paediatrics unit at Sunderland Royal Hospital, I love the different ways that we can refer to children even in a small set of islands like ours.
Most of those terms wouldn’t work in the US. “American” and “English” are really two different languages, sometimes.
At least two of them wouldn’t work in the South of England either – but what do they know about speaking English down there?
Bairns is derived from Scandinavian via the Vikings, infants from French (blame the Normans – who were actually displaced Vikings anyway), I think Children is from the Anglo Saxon. Weans is used in the West of Scotland and Northern Ireland and is derived from wee-ones (small ones). I haven’t a clue about the others.
2 replies on “Kid’s Stuff”
Most of those terms wouldn’t work in the US. “American” and “English” are really two different languages, sometimes.
At least two of them wouldn’t work in the South of England either – but what do they know about speaking English down there?
Bairns is derived from Scandinavian via the Vikings, infants from French (blame the Normans – who were actually displaced Vikings anyway), I think Children is from the Anglo Saxon. Weans is used in the West of Scotland and Northern Ireland and is derived from wee-ones (small ones). I haven’t a clue about the others.