Is there an Irish spelling of this Syrian/biblical city? I would expect that it would just be spelled "Damascus," but you never know. Thanks.

In what I have read in Munster Irish, it is Damascus. It could be different in the literature of other dialects.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Damaisc

Thanks much for your prompt replies!

Is there an easy answer to the mechanic that converts "scus" into "aisc?"

I suppose I'd venture a guess that it's a phonetic mechanism?

Damascus is a Latin word. Now I don't know how it could become -aisc in Irish, it should have become "-asc" (-aisc would come from Latin -ascia or -ascis or -ascius: an -i- is needed in the ending to make an s and a c slender).

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Damaisc was the dative of Damascus in the Bardic Standard (or Classical Irish or Early Modern Irish, whatever one wants to call it).
The Caighdeán commonly uses old datives as nominatives, so perhaps this is the origin?

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Although "English-Irish Dictionary" by The Talbot Press Limited, an old dictionary with a nice list of place names in the middle, gives Damaisc without the article, an Bíobla Naofa confirms Scooby's an Damaisc with the article at Isea 17:1 and an Dara Leabhar Shamúéil 8:6 (Isiah 17:1 and 2 Samuel 8:6).


The local name for the place is Dimashq, so in this case the Irish version is closer to the original than the Latin.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

it's surprising, because the masculine dative of nouns is never formed by making the last consonant(s) slender. That's rather something that happens with feminine nouns (2nd declension). Almost no masculine noun changes in the dative case in Modern Irish (I can think of 1 example: teach which becomes toigh in Ulster in the dative).

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

دمشق‎

http://www.forvo.com/word/%D8%AF%D9%85%D8%B4%D9%82/#ar


But the town is called الشام‎ / ash-Shām in Syria

http://www.forvo.com/word/%D8%A7%D9%84% ... %D9%85/#ar


(thanks to Forvo and Wikipedia)

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
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