Hi everyone, (at a slow pace) I'm making my way through the audiobook 'Nain' by Sláine Ní Chathalláin and I have some questions on the grammar.

If anyone's able to help me make sense of some of the following I'd be very greatful.
And for some background, Sláine is a native speaker from West Kerry, she currently hosts An Saol Ó Dheas on rnag.

"Bhí cónaí orm ar an gCoimín ..... nó go rabhsa 17 mbliana déag"
> Does anyone know why 'ar an' is used in this instance? I was expecting to see "Bhí cónaí orm sa Choimín"?
> It seems that "nó" is used in the sense of "since", why wouldn't Sláine use "ó" instead though
> "nó" is pronounced "nú", does anyone know if this is a kerry thing and if you'd find the same in Cork or Ring?
> "17 mbliana déag" is read by Sláine as "seacht mbliana déag", which s fine. But do we have to add the "d'aois"? I think I've seen it added most of the time in text books, but I'm guessing it's the same as in English where you'd have "I'm 17" vs "I'm 17 years old", both of which being completely fine to use.

"Lá chomh breá leis, ní fhaca ó shin"
> Context: She just found her grandfather dead on the floor
> So literally I suppose this means "I'll never see a day as nice as this again". I presume she's being ironic here? But wanted to confirm unless this expression has a fixed meaning in the negative also
> "ní fhaca" is written as such but she seems to be saying "n'fheaca". I've seen the 'ní' run into the 'fh' in phrases like "n'fheadar", does it commonly happen with all 'f' verbs? Also, it sounds to me like the initial 'n' is slender, is that correct for West Munster?

"Bhíomair imithe go dhí an siopa ag triall ar chúpla rud do"
> I'm assuming this means "getting some things for him", but I can't find a usage like this for triall
> Interesting note: "imithe" is clearly pronounced as "mithe"

"mo laoch agus mo pháirtí, mo mhúinteoir is mo chara, ná cífeadh solas an lae arís in aois a 67 bliain"
> Can someone clarify the usage of páirtí here please. does it mean "my people" or "my partner"?
> I'm finding the back half of the sentence a little confusing - "ná cífeadh solas an lae arís in aois a 67 bliain". I get the gist is something like "that won't see the light of day again" but I'm not sure how the "in aois a 67 bliain" fits in. Should there be a comma between the two phrases, meaning that the sentence would read as "the man that won't see the light of day again, in his 67th year"?
> Interesting note: "in aois a 67 bliain" is read as "in aois a sheacht mbliana is trí fichid". Super cool!!!!!
> Interesting note: the "n" in "in aois" seems to be broad

"an té a bhíodh ag imirt cartaí ... im theannta tar éis scoile"
> Can someone help me clarify the use of "im theannta" here please. From teanglann I think it means "playing cards along with me" which makes for an awkward translation when I suppose something like "playing cards with me" is what Sláine is going for
> Interesting note: "im theannta" has no y-glide at the start of "theannta", it's pronounced as [im' hauntə]. I was adding a glide to this, but I think it was purely a hangover from school Irish, seems none is needed at all!


"greamaithe don gcarraig"
> Does anyone know if "greamaithe de" is different from "greamaithe do". I know that in Kerry these prepositions are merged so it doesn't matter to Sláine, but in teanglann (de Bhaldraithe) I'm seeing usages of both do and de e.g. "greamaithe do chúl ruda.", "greamaithe den fhuinneog aici". But in Ó Dónaill's dictionary I'm not seeing usages with 'do' at all. I'd guess that either preposition is fine, but I'm not sure
> Interesting note: don eclipses in Kerry where you'd get a séimhiú in Cork

1. Ar an gCoimín - aren't townlands usually "ar" anyway?
2. Nú go: until I was 17.
3. Nó is pronounced nú in Muskerry too.
4. 17 mbliana déag - is fine as is.
5. Lá chómh breá leis - maybe it means I have never since seen a day with such fine weather?
6. I think it should be n'fheaca - what does Ó Sé say on this? And of course the n is slender.
7. Ag triall ar: going to to see, going to get, fetching, etc.
8. Imithe: the accent can be on the 2nd syllable, so that leads to mithe.
9. I don't know for sure what páirtí means. Is Dinneen any help?
10. In aois a 67 bliain: at his 67 years of age.
11. In aois: you would expect a broad n before a broad vowel, and many speakers have broad consonants before a following word anyway. E.g in aon chor can be inéachor or anaochor.
12. im theannta - along with me, yes, and so "with me".
13. I think ag imirt chártaí would be better with ch.
14.əm hauntə. The əm can be a syllabic devoiced m, with no real vowel attached as in "i mBleá Cliath". You can hear im theannta (very quick) at https://www.canuint.ie/en/CD0188_22412316_30
15. Give your school Irish teachers a black eye when you see them - they are frauds teaching something they don't know and giving themselves out as native speakers I expect too.
16. I think it is greamú de rud, pronounced greamú do rud.

Ar is quite common for placenames with "an".



nú because of n ("nasal rising"), common in Connacht as well.
nó go = until
rabhsa = rabhas-sa = I was



Yes.



= Ní fhaca lá chomh breá leis ó shin = I haven't seen a day as beautiful as it since.



At least with feaca(igh) (saw), féadfaidh (can), feadair (know) - but not other/all f verbs.



hyaunta?
/h/ is neither broad nor slender so no glide is needed: teannta /tyaunta/ -> theannta /haunta/




Probably, FGB (or rather its sources) merged de and do, too. I'd guess, it should be spelled "de" all the time.

Interestingly, I have encountered forms of teannta pronounced quite frequently with a broad initial consonant instead of a slender one (i.e. tannta, thannta, dtannta), especially in Heinrich Wagner's Oral Literature from Dunquin.

_________________
I'm an intermediate speaker of the Corca Dhuibhne dialect of Irish and also have knowledge on the old spelling
Soir gaċ síar, fé ḋeireaḋ thíar

Is this interchangeable with "go" and "go dtí do" or is there some sort of subtlety?


Any idea how this arose?


Yes! And thanks, I never knew about Dinneen (assuming this pdf is the correct one) until now! We have a hit:



Pronounced by Sláine as a Kerry speaker, but I assume the "de" is maintained and pronounced as "de" in Cork and Ring? (likely the case in Ulster too)


Yes "hyaunta" exactly.
In terms of /h/ being neither broad nor slender, there's an interesting entry in "The Irish of Ring, Co. Waterford" where the author distinguishes between h and h' as distinct sounds.
I think this makes sense, as the mouth shape and tongue position during a h's air release tends to match the following vowel. Assimilation?

I just think "nú go" is clearer than "go", because "go" has many meanings, and the additional syllable makes it clear what it means, but there isn't a difference in meaning.

Imithe - can be accented on the second syllable - possible because imeacht has the accent on the second syllable.

Got it thanks for clarifying.

Next round of questions:

"Ghearradh sí ... an builín don mbágún is dh'ithinn é"
> In FGB and Dineen I'm seeing "builín" as a small loaf of bread, but I'm not 100% sure what it means in this context.
> Does she mean that a "loaf" of the bacon was being cut off for her? If so would it make more sense to strip the article out of this sentance?
> Or is "builín" possibly a specific part of the cut of meat?

"Cuireann san cas aigne inniu orm"
> When we want to say this or that as a verb's subject, is the tendency in Munster to use san instead of sin? i.e. Bhí san go-hiontach etc? Or is sin here also fine?

"Bhí Nain ar nós máthair eile agamsa"
> I know the idea is that Nan was a second mother to Sláine but any idea why the choice of preposition here is agam vs do?

"ná chuir sé sin gléas id chraiceann"
> This was a surprise! Sláine pronounces "chraiceann" as [xrikʹən], and I'm seeing [krekʹən] in the cork Irish dictionary.
> Has something happened in Kerry with craiceann in the same way that ei has changed to i e.g. with feic [fʹekʹ], teine [tʹeni] etc.

“fuaireamair níosa chóngaraí dá chéile”
> First time I’ve come across níosa as an alternative to níos. Looks like it’s interchangeable and lenites the following adjective.
> I’d love if anyone had more context on this though, or even just to confirm if this is a complete drop in replacement for níos.
> Also I’ve come across cóngarach is the sense of nearness, but Sláine is using it here in the sense of growing closer together (can’t find this usage in the doctionary)

“agus mise ag maireachtaint sa Ghaillimh”
> She pronounces “maireachtaint” as “mrachtaint”. Any idea why the first vowel gets knocked out?

“nó ag fiafraí díom”
> As expected Sláine pronounces díom as dom, but Interestingly she does not lenite dom as all, which I would expect.
> Is this going out of style in Munster? Or maybe just with younger speakers?

Literally:
She cut the loaf of the bacon and I ate it.



Bhí Nain agamsa. = I had Nain.
Bhí Nain ar nós máthair eile agamsa. = I had Nain like a second mother.



Yes.



near, close - is quite synonymous.



This happens often, when the first syllable is unstressed, the second stressed, e.g. salach -> s’lach, gabháilt -> g’bháilt, or "Cnús tánn tú?"

As a pronoun, it has to be san, not sin. I think copula sentences are different (sin rud eile, etc), but other than that it is either san or é sin. I think "san" is in reference to something general, and "é sin" is more specific.

Ar nós máthair eile - was it máthair or máthar. You could have the genitive here, but you could also see "máthair eile" as a whole phrase that is then not declined.

I would take GCD as my guide as to díom vs. dhíom. What does Ó Sé say there? Sláine was reading a text, and so may have read what was given to her, or maybe she says díom after a vowel all the time?

Maireachtant has a slender r - mireÁchtaint (broad m then slender r).