I have often wondered where the demarcation line is drawn between the use of the words wean and bairn in Scotland. The following website is a bit of a help, though growing up in Glasgow I always thought wean was typically Glesga as I never heard it anywhere else, or perhaps that it was influenced by the Irish who descended upon Glasgow in their thousands upon thousands in the 1800s...so why not the use of wean in Wigtownshire? I have heard wean used in N. Ireland; however, I don't know if the N. Irish were influenced by the Scots who were "planted" in the early 1600s, or if the word is indigenous to that area and then crossed the channel to Glasgow. This article helps to clear up matters for me somewhat, though I still wonder if there might not have been an Irish influence somewhere at some time. http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/SWE/TBI/TBIIssue7/Wean.html Maisie