"だなんだと" meaning


> 聖夜【せいや】だなんだと繰【く】り返【かえ】す歌【うた】と (song lyric)

(then it goes like: わざとらしくきらめく街【まち】のせいかな )

More specifically, I cannot decide which character belongs to where in
"だなんだと". Is it the expression なんだ or is it a form of "なのです" (even though I
didn't know this was possible after a だ).




It's actually "何{なん}だ", and here 何 works as a stand-in for things that you
want to avoid mentioning, or that you think are not worth mentioning, by name.
So no, it's not a form of "なのです".

More relevantly, we can think of "XXXだ何{なん}だ" as a set phrase meaning
something like "XXX and whatnot".

The "と" right after it is a quotative/complementizer "と", indicating
"聖夜{せいや}だなんだ" is what the song repeats (though the substitution of 何{なん} is by
_our_ songwriter), and the whole "聖夜{せいや}だなんだと繰返す{くりかえす}" is a relative clause
modifying "歌{うた}".

Thus we may translate "聖夜{せいや}だなんだと繰返す{くりかえす}歌{うた}" to "(the) song that keeps
on about it being the Holy Night and all that stuff". (The "と" that comes
after it is a conjunction: "and")




It's actually "何{なん}だ", and here 何 works as a stand-in for things that you
want to avoid mentioning, or that you think are not worth mentioning, by name.
So no, it's not a form of "なのです".

More relevantly, we can think of "XXXだ何{なん}だ" as a set phrase meaning
something like "XXX and whatnot".

The "と" right after it is a quotative/complementizer "と", indicating
"聖夜{せいや}だなんだ" is what the song repeats (though the substitution of 何{なん} is by
_our_ songwriter), and the whole "聖夜{せいや}だなんだと繰返す{くりかえす}" is a relative clause
modifying "歌{うた}".

Thus we may translate "聖夜{せいや}だなんだと繰返す{くりかえす}歌{うた}" to "(the) song that keeps
on about it being the Holy Night and all that stuff". (The "と" that comes
after it is a conjunction: "and")

