back prev next Irish harp terms from Bunting
from Edward Bunting, Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin 1840)
Irish dofhreagradh comhluí spoken by Gráinne Yeats Scottish Gaelic freagairt co-laighe spoken by Tony Dilworth Click the play button to hear it spoken. help Dofhreagrach caomhluidhe - Answering Doubtless we are to understand that this string "answers" or corresponds to the comhluí/cobhlaí, the sisters, an octave below. The first word, therefore, ought to be a noun meaning 'answering' or 'answer': for these the normal words are freagra and freagairt. Here we evidently have a prefix do-, and the intended noun is probably dofhreagradh, opposed to freagradh in Freagrach tead na feitheolach. The meaning of this word is unclear, for the prefix do- normally signifies 'impossible' or 'evil'. Since Bunting evidently sees a distinction between 'answer' and 'response', perhaps the same distinction is reflected in his two Gaelic terms. See Freagrach tead na feitheolach, Dofhreagrach and Fhreagrach. Colm Ó Baoill 2002 Alasdair Codona suggests that ‘dofhreagrach‘ might be a mis-reading of ‘Do. fhreagrach’, i.e. ditto fhreagrach, in a manuscript list of similar terms. This suggestion is supported by the absence of Dofhreagrach in the ms12 chart: it gives ‘freaghrach coamhliagh’ as the name of this string. Simon Chadwick 2008
Click the play button to hear it spoken. help
Dofhreagrach caomhluidhe - Answering
Doubtless we are to understand that this string "answers" or corresponds to the comhluí/cobhlaí, the sisters, an octave below. The first word, therefore, ought to be a noun meaning 'answering' or 'answer': for these the normal words are freagra and freagairt. Here we evidently have a prefix do-, and the intended noun is probably dofhreagradh, opposed to freagradh in Freagrach tead na feitheolach. The meaning of this word is unclear, for the prefix do- normally signifies 'impossible' or 'evil'. Since Bunting evidently sees a distinction between 'answer' and 'response', perhaps the same distinction is reflected in his two Gaelic terms. See Freagrach tead na feitheolach, Dofhreagrach and Fhreagrach.
Colm Ó Baoill 2002
Alasdair Codona suggests that ‘dofhreagrach‘ might be a mis-reading of ‘Do. fhreagrach’, i.e. ditto fhreagrach, in a manuscript list of similar terms. This suggestion is supported by the absence of Dofhreagrach in the ms12 chart: it gives ‘freaghrach coamhliagh’ as the name of this string.
Simon Chadwick 2008
