To bark shrilly or repeatedly; to make short, sharp sounds like the barks of small animals.
Possibly a variant or diminutive of 'bark,' with '-le' suggesting repetitive or diminished action (compare 'crackle,' 'sparkle'). The exact origin is uncertain, suggesting folk etymology or regional dialect origin.
Words like 'barkle' exist in dialect dictionaries and older texts but have largely disappeared—they show how English once had more onomatopoetic variety before standardization winnowed down such colorful verbs.
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