Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

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Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Is it a colloquial form?

Can anybody tell me which is the literal meaning of the following words taken from a Dylan’s song? “a hard rain’s a-gonna fall”

It is the “a” before “gonna” not clear at all.

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It's a poetic, even archaic form, often found in old folk songs - Dylan was much influenced by those in the early years. Perhaps the most obvious example of the usage is "Summer is a'comin' in" - just try singing it with and without the initial "a" and you'll soon get the point...

Nicholas_Sanders Nov-29-2005

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Although, strictly speaking, "Summer is a'comin' in" is more correctly written: "Svmer is icumen in Lhude sing cuccu! Groweþ sed and bloweþ med and springþ þe wde nu". However, unless you are actually singing the song in the round, "icumen" sounds jolly silly; thus a'comin' is much more palatable...

james.smith Dec-01-2005

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Although it must be remembered that the form 'is icumen' is an old form of the past participle (cf mod German 'ist gekommen'), which all but died out as a tense marker in English (OE 'ge-', ME 'y-', 'i-').

I believe it's possible that somewhere in the past the memory of this usage influenced the insertion of a similar schwa sound for rythmical purposes: 'summer is a-coming in' no longer has the same meaning as 'summer has come in', but its source does, and now it influences phrases such as 'rain's a-gonna fall' and I'm a-going home' (and maybe even 'that a-way').

petescully Dec-02-2005

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The following link strikes me as, at least, a plausible explanation. It seems to think that the "a" in most of these cases comes not from the ME prefix i- (or OE ge-) but from OE on-, indicating a direction or tendency:

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19971124

Avrom Dec-02-2005

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...which suggests, I guess, that "Summer is a'comin in" is an, at best, very non-literal translation of "Sumer is icumen in"...the former meaning that Summer is beginning to come in, and the latter meaning that it has come in.

Avrom Dec-02-2005

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That is certainly true. 'Asleep' and 'awake' have the same origin.

anonymous4 Dec-02-2005

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The 'a' in 'a-gonna' has no actual meaning. It is a nonsense syllable inserted for poetic scansion (ie. to fit the rhythm of the song).

Melanie1 Dec-03-2005

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a- in this case is representing the verb 'is'... this use is a common feature of the Appalachian regional dialect of American English. This gives the lyrics a more 'folksy' feel.

SCooper Dec-06-2005

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I thought the 's was representing the word 'is'. Do you mean that the sentence contains two forms of 'is' next to each other?

petescully Dec-07-2005

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Does anyone out there actually have the complete lyrics to this song...Sumer is icumen in... I have been searching for same.

cnltedder Apr-19-2007

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