In Northern England and Scotland people sometimes use 'Bairn' for child, which presumably has the same origin as the Swedish word.Nogon wrote:
French:
Listened to Tom Rob Smith - Enfant 44 (Child 44), read by Frédéric Meaux, while reading the Swedish translation (Barn 44).
bairn - ORIGIN
Old English bearn, of Germanic origin; related to the verb bear.
child - ORIGIN
Old English cild, of Germanic origin. The Middle English plural childer or childre became childeren or children by association with plurals ending in -en, such as brethren.
EDIT
Re: Wind in the willows
I was watching a nature documentary the other day, and they mentioned that Ratty was inspired by a Water Vole rather than a rat. I don't think I've heard that before, but the idea of a Rat being presented in a positive light in fiction is an odd one.