Irish Translation Forum

I'd like help translating the phrase "of the filidh". I'm a beginner to the language, so I appreciate your understanding if this is a rather elementary translation

Thank you in advance.

Dave

Is that the old Irish word for "poet"? If so, the modern Irish word is "file," and the plural genitive (which is, I assume, what you'd want) is filí (literally would mean "of the poets." I'm not sure how the genitive was formed before the spellings were standardized.

If that's not what you're looking for, hopefully someone else will come up with it. I assumed it was because I can't find it in either of my dictionaries, but I know I've seen it before.

Redwolf

Yes, that's right Redwolf.

Filidh means poets and in modern irish is spelt filí.

We can't give really you a phrase "of the filidh" because you would need to combine it with the rest of the sentence.

Here's how it works:

na filí (the poets)

teach na bhfilí (house of the poets)

Hope this helps.

Thanks so much for your responses! The phrase will be used as part of a name in a work of historical fiction, as Ronan 'of the poets'. It's for college, so accuracy and marketability aren't really key concerns, but I wanted to get as close as possible. I'm still confused about proper usage, for example I've seen both Tuatha na Gael and Tuatha nGael.

Thanks a bunch!
Dave

DaveK_MI wrote: for example I've seen both Tuatha na Gael and Tuatha nGael.

Neither of those are correct. "Tribes of the Gael" would be be "Tuatha na nGael."

I'm not sure that someone would have been called "Ronan of the the Filidh." It would seem more likely that he would be "Ronán an Fíle"

I apologize for my inexperience, but would that then read as Ronán the Poet?

Dave

DaveK_MI wrote:I apologize for my inexperience, but would that then read as Ronán the Poet?

Dave

Yeah. Ronan is supposed to be a poet, right?

Well, more of an historian or chronicler, a bard if you will.

Dave

Why not use the word "bard" then? I think it's actually a word of Irish derivation (at least I know it's "bard" in Irish, and Ireland was the land of the Bardic Order). Ronan an Bard ("Ronan the Bard"), or Ronan na mBaird ("Ronan of the Bards").

Redwolf