Hi all,

I've been reading a few books from Corca Dhuibhne and I keep seeing the form "Dá bar",
e.g. "Dá bar cloch mhór é bhíos marbh"

Maybe "Dá bar" is extremely common, but I've never seen into before. Could anybody tell me what it means?

Thanks!

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Are you sure there's not two r's, i.e., barr? Can't find any reference to bar in my Munster literature.

de bharr (ruda) means "as a result of (sth); because of (sth)".

dá bharr means "because of it/him". dá barr "because of it/her".

Dá bharr sin "consequently"

But that could all be off track ...

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Yeah, it's definitely "Dá bar", here's the whole sentence:

"....Ar bhun mo phrompa thiar a buaileadh é, agus dá bar cloch mhór é bhíos marbh" arsa Cearc an Phrompa.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

I guess it's a variant of "dá mba" (if it were).

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

I guessed that too, just from context, but if it was a past/conditional copula wouldn't it lenite cloch,
e.g. Dá mba chloch mhór....

I've listened to the audio supplied with the book and the speaker says "Dá bar ...".

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Yes but I think these initial mutations aren't always made by Corca Dhuibhne people.
And maybe the -r is added there by analogy with "ar, nár, gur" etc... (that's my guess )

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Ah, that's a good point, just sticking in an "r" because it's the past/conditional and if they don't always
mutate things that might be the explanation.

Thanks!

Actually, when you say Corca Dhuibhne people don't always do mutations when are we talking about?
Do they drop them randomly in speech, like people in every language make shortcuts, or is it
in specific grammatical situations?

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

If you look at An Teanga Bheo or at Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne, you'll see that in certain cases, Corca Dhuibhne people don't do certain mutations while you would do them in Standard irish or in the other dialects. And it's regular, so they aren't mistake but just a local evolution. Anyway there were many more mutations in Old Irish too, many have disappeared in the speech of native speakers too (and even more in the speech of non-native speakers )

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Just to follow up on this, I've been to Kerry recently and learned loads about the copula there and in the rest of Munster
(other people go to Daingean for Fungie the Dolphin, not I though!). Anyway I found out that indeed "Dá bar" is a variant
of "Dá mba" and it doesn't lenite. Actually there are several variants of every form of the copula, I might list them if anybody
is interested.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal