Please allow me to address a question to a native Irish speaker.

If I welcome someone to my Website in Irish, would I say "Fáilte chuig Thomas Wolff" or "Fáilte go Thomas Wolff"?
(http://www.thomaswolff.at/index_enu.html)

Many thanks in advance... :-)

Well Bríd Mhór is the only native speaker who is on this website, and hasn't posted for months (??). Generally, speaking few native speakers take an active part in online resources on the Irish language. Bríd is an important exception.

Fáilte go Conamara - "go" used with a proper noun
Fáilte go dtí mo neadsa - "go dtí" used with definite nouns/nouns with possessive, etc
Fáite chun mo neadsa - this is used the same as the one above. Chuig is a dialectal version of chun.

Fáilte go dtí mo shuíomh
Fáilte chun/chuig mo shuíomh

These are both correct "for welcome to my site".

I think Fáilte go Thomas Wolff (Tomás Machtíre) would be fine.

Wonderful... I will correct my site accordingly.
I highly appreciate your quick reply... many many thanks for it. :-)

Well, maybe see what other forum participants incl Labhrás/An Lon Dubh might say re: go vs. chun?

Yes, you are right. Perhaps I better wait a few more days.
So far, however, no one else has answered. :-)
Thanks once again and all the best.

Is there not a positional distinction between "chun" and "go", two words that are both translated as "to"? That is, does "chun" not mean "to" (towards) whereas "go" means "to" (away)? So in this sense I would suggest that "Fáilte chuig" is the correct translation.

Irish also distinguishes between the three senses of "up", stationary up, ascending up and descending up. So people will say "agus mé ag fás aníos" (when I was growing up) with the sense being that of growing from lower (ascending). It grates on me hugely to hear television sports commentators talk about a ball falling from the sky with "an liathród ag teacht síos". German also makes this distinction, if I remember correctly.

I'm not a linguist so apologies for the layperson's language.

There's no "positional distinction" between 'chun' and 'go' that I'm aware of. In some contexts you can add 'anall/anonn' (towards/away from the speaker).
You can use 'ag fás suas' also. 'Fás' is "neutral" in terms of directionality.

I agree with djwebb's explanation - though I was "taught" (Ulster Irish) to use 'chuig' for events but not for physical places.

I can't find a single instance in Peadar Ua Laoghaire's works of "fáilte chun" or "fáilte go" - and the file I have of his works is 1.7m words long. None in Amhlaoibh Ó Loingsigh's Irish too.

Bail ó Dhia oraibh (bail ó dhia oraibh isteach): this can be used to welcome people arriving
Dé úr mbeatha, dé bheatha-sa, etc - this can also in context mean "welcome".

"Fáilte go" is probably encountered with greater frequency today, as a lot of things are a direct translation from English. Nevertheless, "fáilte go" is correct. In Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge (Vol 1, No. 2, December 1882, p52) there was a poem called Fáilte gheal d'Irishleabhar na Gaedhilge go Corcaigh!

The first stanza is:


"Fáilte chun" is also right - fáilte chun ár dtí.

What about "fáilte anso isteach"?