OK, reviving another subject, with my own questions. :P
In caibideal a ceathair Gobnait says:
Caithfead féin sgéal a dh’innsint dóibh.
Why is it
a dh’innsint and not
a innsint, what is the purpose of
d’ in this context?
This is
a in a
prepositional meaning (also
4th definition in FGB), right? So, in modern Irish, it should cause lenition of a consonant, but do nothing to a vowel (
scéal a insint) – in older texts (also in
Sliabh na mBan bhFionn AFAIR) it is written
do (
é do dhéanamh,
scéal d’insint?). Is this
a dh’ before vowel contamination of those two? Is (was?) it common in Cork Irish?
Also, later, Peig says about Séadna:
Is dócha nár chuid ba lúgha ’ná a fhonn a bhí ar Shéadna an rud ceudna do rádh leis. What is the literal translation (I have a difficulty with understanding the part in bold). ‘Probably it wasn’t the least part of his wish¹, that Séadna had, the same thing to tell him’ would be my best try, with intended meaning of ‘I guess it was a pretty big part of his wishes at that moment, to tell him the very same thing’. Am I close?
¹
wishes? Wiktionary and FGB suggest that
fonn does not have plural, but sg.gen. is
foinn, so it looks like gen.pl… The
’ná a fhonn part troubles me. Is it
ná in the meaning ‘that is’? Would it then be ‘it wasn’t the least thing, ie. his wish, that he had/was thinking about, the same thing…’?
EDIT: or ‘it wasn’t less than his wish’, ‘he at least had a desire…’, with
ná meaning ‘than’ would make more sense?