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Dofhreagrach caomhluidhe

from Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin 1840), page 21: The strings of the harp.


Irish dofhreagradh comhluí spoken by Gráinne Yeats
Scottish Gaelic freagairt co-laighe spoken by Tony Dilworth

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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