I'm from the other (right) side of the Pennines but that all looks pretty good to me (and it's not a million miles away from the "lanky twang"[1] either.)
A better reading of "Hey up, Young Pokey. Is tha barn darn t' pit?" would be "Hey up, Young Pokey. Are you going down the pit?".
"Is tha" - "Are you" (from "thou")
"barn darn" - Barn here mean "bound" or "going"; "darn" is just "down"
" 'pit" - The pit (roughly the mine)
Similarly, "Aye, sither. Ah'm barn darn t' thutty-niners wi' t' fa'ther" would be read as "Aye, you see. I'm going down the pit with my father".
Slight aside: Anyone else from Yorkshire use/hear "seefing" to mean "seeing if" (as in "I was seefing/seeing if tickets were available"). I hear it relatively often, but I don't recall ever seeing it written, even in dialect.
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.
Pretty 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.
Even as someone from Yorkshire, it's a little difficult to read, because you rarely see it written out. Hearing it definitely helps
My Grandfather is a softer version of this dialect, and I listen to him without a problem, but if he tries to write the same way he speaks, it can be difficult to follow.
Poke was the author's father's nickname.
"Lightning" was his father's best friend's nickname.
"Thutty-nine" was the coalface they were working on.
To take a day off as sick leave, despite not being ill. Stick with me, son. You'll be right." Hey up, Poke. Is that your son? Hey up, son of Poke. Is the child down the pit? Aye, you see. I'm (the) child down the coalface with the father. He's a cheeky you lad. You want to give him (the) thick end of your belt. You know Lightning, don't you? Aye, you see, but even then I still do about twice as much as your father. But you haven't had your surprise yet. (Is) Poke's son down (here) yet? Right oh. I'll start dropping them. Watch yourselves. You won't say anything (lit. nothing) to your mother, will you? This is just between us men. But you know why he did it, don't you? No, lad. Your dad had to bribe a few people to get you down the pit that day, you know. Now look at you. You passed your 11-plus (a significant school exam), ... you've been to college, and you've got a right good job, haven't you? Exactly! See it now, sunshine?