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I don't understand the following sentence (song lyric):

聖夜【せいや】だなんだと繰【く】り返【かえ】す歌【うた】と　

(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).

Could someone help me with this?

Thanks

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  • 1
    Parse なんだと as 何だと。 – A.Ellett Jul 5 '17 at 16:53
  • Does that help you get the meaning though? This would mean "A song about repeating "It's Christmas eve, It's what" " or..? haha – フローレンス Jul 5 '17 at 20:48
  • なんだと means "something/somewhat" or "pardon me". It's not a question. It's a vague thing. – A.Ellett Jul 5 '17 at 21:05
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    Can you please tell us what you're quoting? This question might not really be answerable if we can't look up the original song. – snailboat♦ Jul 5 '17 at 22:35
  • The lyrics seem to be to this song which shows the lyrics (along with chord progressions). – A.Ellett Jul 5 '17 at 22:37
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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")

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It should be "聖夜(せいや)が鳴(な)ったとくり返(かえ)す歌(うた) と"

It means "The song that kept playing during the christmas night"

with "わざとらしくきらめく街(まち)のせいかな"

It means "I blame the song that kept playing during the christmas night and the purposely well-decorated street"

The singer wants to express "why did I fell in love? oh, it's the song and street's fault."

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  • Thank you for this very pertinent answer. However, no matter how many times I hear it again: it really says せいやだなんだと :s – フローレンス Jul 5 '17 at 20:49

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