Shouldn't 'bairn' be spelt that way and not 'barn' as in the article?
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.htmGiven 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.