The Irish Gaelic Tattoo Handbook is now available for purchase from Amazon (U.S., Canada, and UK), in either paperback or Kindle format. You can also order it from your local bookstore, or directly from the publisher.

I'm so excited!

https://www.amazon.com/Irish-Gaelic-Tat ... o+Handbook

Comhghairdeas leat!

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There was a write up in Tuairisc.

http://tuairisc.ie/treoirleabhar-faoi-t ... foilsithe/

Yep! He was a bit confused about when I started learning Irish (I made an attempt when I was 15 and found a copy of "Simple Lessons In Irish" in an antiques store, but I didn't begin studying seriously until 2004), but it was a good write-up!

Redwolf

A very good read, even though I don’t like tattoos


Some errors, mura miste leat:


Coimeádaí mo dhearthár is a definite phrase. It must not be next to the copula.
It would be Is é coimeádaí mo dhearthár (...), e.g.: Is é coimeádaí mo dhearthár an fear seo.
But with "me" as the keeper the order is different:
Is mé/mise coimeádaí mo dhearthár.



The Bíobla Naofa version is: ... is é an grá an ní is mó orthusan.
Is mó orthu(san) is very idiomatic and is mó acu much more widespread, so rather a good idea to paraphrase it.
But I wonder why ba mhó in your version?

The book was proofed by two professional Irish-language copy editors, one of whom is a native speaker, and it was he who suggested (insisted, rather) on the "ba mhó" version. Both were fine with the "brother's keeper" quote (which is also what we've given people here and at IGTF for years, so while it may be unconventional, it has a solid track record.


Redwolf

"Is coimeádaí mo dhearthár mé" can be found only twice on Google, both on IGTF:
Here, 2007, someone clearly corrected the erroneous suggestion:
"as far as i know the copula is never followed by a definite noun"
http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/tr ... 59093.html

But here, 2010, the correction wasn't very clear but rather polite and someone made the error again at the end:
http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/tr ... 99008.html
A: "Is coimeádaí mo dheirféar mé"
B: "Is mise coimeádaí mo dheirféar...I am my sister's keeper"
C: "Either of those would be fine, I think."
D: "Can anyone give me another verification??? Thanks so much!"
E: "'Is mise coimeádaí mo dheirféar'
this is good"
F: "''Is mise coimeádaí mo dheirféar'
this is good' Aye."
...
G (last post in thread): "Just to summarize for those who come to read this thread later:

Coimeádaí mo dheirféar "My sister's keeper"
Coimeádaí mo dhearthár "My brother's keeper"

Is mise coimeádaí mo dheirféar "_I_ am my sister's keeper"
Is mise coimeádaí mo dhearthár "_I_ am my brother's keeper"

Is coimeádaí mo dheirféar mé "I am my sister's keeper"
Is coimeádaí mo dhearthár mé "I am my brother's keeper""

BTW: "C" is you.

The Bíobla Naofa version as a question is: "An mise coimeádaí mo dhearthár?"
http://ga.bibles.org/gle-ABN/Gen/4


In the version "Is coim. mo dhear. mé" two grammar rules are violated:
1) "Is an fear é" is impossible in Irish.
It is not impossible because of the article (impossibility of "Is an ...") as one might think but because the phrase "an fear" is definite.
This rule holds true for all definite noun phrases:
All of these are impossible without the pronoun in bold:
"Is é leabhar an fhir é"
"Is é mo leabhar é"
"Is é gach leabhar é"
"Is í caibidíl a haon í"

2) "Is é an fear mé" is impossible.
It must be "Is mé an fear" or "Is mise an fear".

What can I say? To paraphrase the Bible, "wherever three or four Irish speakers are gathered in the name of the language, there will be disagreement" There's a reason that we employed two professional editors (and there were some interesting disagreements between the two of them), and there was a huge amount of back and forth between me, my publisher, and the two of them (interestingly, the native-speaker editor made a lot of substantive changes to the An Bíobla Naofa quotes, most of which I changed back, since I was using it as an authoritative resource...it's possible that, in all the back and forth, I and the other editor missed this one).

Re the "the greatest of these is love" translation, the reason the first one lacks "orthusan/acusan" is because people vary in exactly how they want this quote: Some want 'the greatest of these is love" (reflecting the first part of the sentence, which also mentions faith and hope) and some want "the greatest thing is love" (I'm guessing either because they're using a different English translation of the Bible -- or perhaps they're working from memory). I should have mentioned that in the English and didn't, so that one's my bad.

Redwolf

Sin é.

I have to take exception to that comment; you only need two!

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