4 ms·
Shouldn't 'bairn' be spelt that way and not 'barn' as in the article?
by gd1 11y ago
Shouldn't 'bairn' be spelt that way and not 'barn' as in the article?
- ColinWright 11y agoDialectic differences. Yorkshire dialect word : barn Generally accepted meaning : child (especially a young child, infant) Old Norse source word : barn Same as bairn, which comes from the Old English bearn. bairn is used as an alternative in some parts of Yorkshire, the other northern counties and Scotland. From http://www.viking.no/e/england/yorkshire_norse.htm http://www.viking.no/e/england/yorkshire_norse.htm
- jameshart 11y agoPretty sure 'barn' in this sense means 'bound', as in 'heading' or 'going'. "Hey up, Young Pokey. Is tha barn darn t' pit?" reads to me as "Hello, son of Poke. Are you heading down the pit?" Given that this conversation appears to be directed at the child in question, and the child responds by saying "Ah'm barn darn t' thutty-niners", seems unlikely he'd refer to himself as a 'barn'. Makes more sense to me that he's agreeing - he's bound down the thirty-niners.