Word order in 銀河鉄道の夜


I was reading 銀河鉄道の夜, and I’m confused on the choice of word order in the
following sentence. I understand what the sentence means, but I do not
understand why みんな isnt before が.

> たしかにあれがみんな星だと

Let me know if more context is necessary.




For clarity, in the context of the 銀河鉄道の夜 the clause the question is about is
meant as an answer to

> [...]このぼんやりと白いものがほんとうは何かご承知ですか。

— something the teacher asks the class while pointing to an illustration of
the Milky Way, and it is part of a longer sentence that continues on like so:

> たしかにあれがみんな星だと、いつか雑誌で読んだのでしたが...

With that out of the way, the reason みんな comes after が here is because it is
used as an adverb (meaning "all, everything, wholly") rather than a noun.

> たしかにあれが **みんな** 星だと _...that (it is/they are) certainly **all** stars_

みんな as a noun could not really have been used here, as would then refer to a
group of people, while the sentence is about what the Milky Way is composed
of.

This use corresponds to its second definition on
[jisho.org](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%BF%E3%82%93%E3%81%82) as well as
on
[goo.ne.jp](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E7%9A%86_%28%E3%81%BF%E3%81%AA%29/)
(here listed under みな). Those two sites also give the following examples,
respectively:

> 木の葉は **みんな** 落ちてしまった。The leaves have all fallen.  
>  今回の不始末は **みんな** 私の責任です This (case of) mismanagement is entirely my fault.
> (emphasis, second translation mine)

As adverbs cannot take the subject-marker が, the only way for this みんな to end
up before it would be by being placed before あれが, but while (as neither a
native speaker nor an advanced learner) I may be wrong on this and cannot
properly explain it, to me it sounds incredibly weird and is most likely just
incorrect.




For clarity, in the context of the 銀河鉄道の夜 the clause the question is about is
meant as an answer to

> [...]このぼんやりと白いものがほんとうは何かご承知ですか。

— something the teacher asks the class while pointing to an illustration of
the Milky Way, and it is part of a longer sentence that continues on like so:

> たしかにあれがみんな星だと、いつか雑誌で読んだのでしたが...

With that out of the way, the reason みんな comes after が here is because it is
used as an adverb (meaning "all, everything, wholly") rather than a noun.

> たしかにあれが **みんな** 星だと _...that (it is/they are) certainly **all** stars_

みんな as a noun could not really have been used here, as would then refer to a
group of people, while the sentence is about what the Milky Way is composed
of.

This use corresponds to its second definition on
[jisho.org](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%BF%E3%82%93%E3%81%82) as well as
on
[goo.ne.jp](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E7%9A%86_%28%E3%81%BF%E3%81%AA%29/)
(here listed under みな). Those two sites also give the following examples,
respectively:

> 木の葉は **みんな** 落ちてしまった。The leaves have all fallen.  
>  今回の不始末は **みんな** 私の責任です This (case of) mismanagement is entirely my fault.
> (emphasis, second translation mine)

As adverbs cannot take the subject-marker が, the only way for this みんな to end
up before it would be by being placed before あれが, but while (as neither a
native speaker nor an advanced learner) I may be wrong on this and cannot
properly explain it, to me it sounds incredibly weird and is most likely just
incorrect.

