Hi. I have a question I hope someone here can answer: Is there an Irish suffix for "the way of" similar to the Asian use of "do" and "jitsu"? I know the irish martial arts typically end with versions of "aoicht" or "oireacht", but with slight differences depending on the base word and I don't know what the rule is. Trying to build a word mirroring Bushido for samurai but with Fianna or Fennid(tangential question: how is fennid pronounced?) and the irish version of the "do" suffix.

Many thanks.

Irish does have many uses of the suffix -cht (with the preceding vowel(s) varying from case to case) in order to turn a noun like draoi (magician or druid) into a profession, field, practice, or art like draíocht (enchantment, magic arts, witchcraft) or more mundane things like like siopa (shop) into siopadóireacht (shopping), but I'm not aware of any way to use that or any other suffix for what you want.

Logically, I suppose one could create a new word like "Fiannoireacht", taking the approach used with draoi, but I think that would sound strange.

I may be wroing, and someone else may know of such a word, but one way you could express it (not using a suffix) might be:
Dóigh na bhFiann
The way of the Fianna

which is a bit like saying bushidoo in Japanese, with the fortuitous coincidence of doo and dóigh.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

Fianna/Fennid (mod. Féinní) combines with the -cht suffix to form Fiannaíocht/Féinníocht which has the meaning "Fenian cycle; stories of the Fianna" or "service in Fianna".

Another abstract noun suffix is -as which combines with fiann to form fiannas, which in literary use means "the profession of a warrior, of a soldier". (In modern bureaucratic usage, it means "active duty".) A variant form is fiannachas.

See Kuno Meyer's Fíanaigecht

https://archive.org/stream/fianaigechtb ... 9/mode/2up (IX)

Féinidecht (fíanaigecht) is a spelling variation of féinigecht (fíanaigecht); the suffix -(a)igecht/ (a)idecht becomes > (a)igheacht/(a)idheacht before becoming > (a)íocht in Modern Irish.

Older spellings of fían (pl. fíana) only contained one -n-:

https://archive.org/stream/fianaigechtb ... 5/mode/2up

Cian

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

So am I on the right page in thinking that Fiannachas would be the word I'm looking for? If it is, could you please tell me the pronunciation as well? Is it Fen-a-hus?

I don't think that works at all. As I understand it, the -adóir- in siopadóireacht is like English -er, so siopadóireacht would be shopper-ing, the art of the shopper. -oir-, as I understand it, is just a variant of -adóir-. So the Scottish Gaelic "Piobaireachd" is "piob"(pipe)+"air"(óir) = piper; +"achd"(acht), and that's pipe music : the art of the player of the pipes.

Long story short, if you want to add the -acht to Fianna, I think you'd have to come up with Fiannacht, but that seems very much contrived.

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A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

The word siopadóireacht exists. (as well as feirmeoireacht, Gaeilgeoireacht, múinteoireacht, etc.)
That works well.

(But there's no word fiannóir, and so no fiannóireacht)