Irish Translation Forum

Méabh wrote:I'm not trying to stir it, but is it still commonplace to speak to clergy members with the plural in Irish?
Like "How are we, Father"

I wish I could find where Lars talks about that part

I didn't know Irish ever used the "plural of respect"

It seems I was right. When a given name is used with a title in the vocative, it is not inflected:

A Athair Seán

Go raibh grásta Dé leat

Open to correction, though.

Thank you all for your help. I will be waiting for the final decision. Sharon

To oisin718:
So I am going to go with:
Slán leat, A Athair Seán
Go raibh grásta Dé leat

Thanks for your help

I would trust to either Aillil or Oisin and I'm sure whichever you choose, Father John will fully understand.

oisin718 wrote:

Méabh wrote:I'm not trying to stir it, but is it still commonplace to speak to clergy members with the plural in Irish?
Like "How are we, Father"

I wish I could find where Lars talks about that part

I didn't know Irish ever used the "plural of respect"

Nope, not to my limited knowledge either. And in any case, why say "How are we, Father"? Why address the priest as "we"? I think royalty used to refer to themselves as "we", "us", "ourself", etc; if not in English then certainly on other languages. I watched a bit of some foreign film with subtitles once and was surprised to see the king tell his woman "You know we love you, will you not marry us and be our queen?" or words to that effect.

The "royal we" still is in use...you'll hear the Queen of England use it occasionally. But I don't think it's ever been applied outside of royalty (well, other than the formal/plural "you" vs. the singular/informal "thou," but English hasn't made that distinction for a very long time!)

Redwolf

Not since the days of "thou" and "thee". Which explains why you never hear the term "Thy Majesty" ever being used.

Clooneman 2000 wrote:Not since the days of "thou" and "thee". Which explains why you never hear the term "Thy Majesty" ever being used.

Nor would you ever: thou/thee/thy are singular informal. Plural of respect: Your Majesty