hello,

I need help in translating the following line:

ní aithneodh súil dá deachaigh i gcloiginn nach puirtleog ghirsí a bhí ann.

thanks a lot.

ní aithneodh	would not recognise
súil dá deachaigh i gcloiginn	any eye that went into a head (i.e. any eye at all)
nach	that not
puirtleog ghirsí	a chubby little girl
a bhí ann	he/it was

You couldn't tell that he/it wasn't a chubby little girl

thank you.

Now the "dá" - where does it belong, how do you analyse it?

dá is a contraction of "do + a".

Not really sure how the grammar construct works though. I would've said:

súil a chuaigh i gcloigeann.

(The plural of "head" is used in the original text)

dá is a contraction of de+a
de has a partitive meaning, something like 'any' or 'some' in English, and 'a' is a relative particle, 'which'
So 'dá' means something like 'any one of which' - 'súil dá...' = any eye which...

Another example could be
Ní fhaca mé duine dá raibh ann - I didn't see anyone (of those that were) there.


David

A Fhir na mBróg,

'súil a chuaigh i gcloigeann' would mean 'an eye that went into a head', not 'any eye that...'
The point is that, when you use 'dá', you imply that there is an instance of something picked out of a group - that's why you use 'de' of (exactly like 'cuid díobh' some/any of them etc.). Such notion is expressed, as I've just said, by 'some' or 'any' in English.

Another example may be: Bhí aithne agam ar go leor daoine dá raibh ann (I knew a lot of people (of those that were) there).

On the other hand, I don't get why the plural form is used in the original phrase - it should mean '...that went into heads'. However, Aonghus translated it as '... into a head'...?!
David