Ann an/anns an

[Caoimhin O Donnaile]

Jim, Andrew,

> Don't have references here, but as I recall "ann an" is a reduplicated
> form: <ann> is the 3rd sg. masc. inflected form, substituting for the
> simple preposition, and <an> is the doubled simple preposition (<i> in
> Irish, <in> before a vowel) with the sandhi <n> glued back onto its
> historical base, as is normal in Scottish Gaelic.  The preposition
> <do>, "to," behaves similarly:  before an object beginning with a
> vowel it's doubled, e.g., in "Thàinig mi a dh'Alba" (I came to
> Scotland), where both <a> and <dh'> are reduced forms of <do>.
> 
> Hope I remember this correctly

That's what I have read too - Can't remember where.

As well as "a dh'", you often get the full form "do dh'" (Google
comes up with it on 80,000 pages!), which makes it even more obvious 
that it is a sort of reduplication.

Part of the cause may be epenthetic phonological phenomena.
As a comparison, you often see written things like
"do na mhullach", or "bho na mhullach" which look horribly
grammatically wrong, but are actually "don mhullach", "bhon mhullach"
with an attempt to write out the svarabhakti which is heard in speech.

Usually in speech you wouldn't hear the full "ann an".  You would
often just hear something like "N@" and maybe a bit of eclipsis on
the following word.

Rob Ó Maolalaigh at Glasgow University would be your man I think
to give a fuller historical explanation.

Caoimhín