Damascus - nominative
Damaisc - Dative

....seriously!? How many other words follow this pattern in Old Irish? No, I'm no expert, but one looks like the original Latin to me and the second one Irish (Gaelicised).

As already noted, the Irish Bible translators tried in many (most?) cases to stick close to native pronunciation, as well as that can be approximated in Irish in a given case, so dimashq was probably what they were trying to reproduce with damaisc. It even extends to things like the word "Amen". You often see it written as Áméin, which looks very much like an attempt to reproduce the Hebrew pronunciation, rather than mimicking the English pronunciation.

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

you read too quickly maybe.

Latin Damascus should have become Damasc in Old Irish
Irish Damaisc should have come from Latin Damasci (or Damascis or something else with an -i-), which can't be a dative in my opinion. And anyway no masculine noun makes its dative case by making slender the last consonant(s) (except 1 exception: teach > toigh).
So there's a problem...

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

Perhaps the "problem" is a result of mistakenly believing the Irish came from 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).

What language would have Old Irish borrowed "Damaisc" from, if it isn't Latin?

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

Could it have been one of the few 2nd declension masculine nouns like im, or sliabh maybe? Or perhaps I have it wrong.

Peadar Ua Laoghaire has the following in Críos Mac Dé, Caibideal a naoi:
In aimsir ár Slánaitheóra bhí Iúdaígh ’na gcónaí anso ’s ansúd ar fuaid na ndúthaí, ins gach aon bhall, chómh fada ó thuaidh le Damascus agus le hAntioch agus i bhfad soir ó sna háiteannaibh sin, leis.
Damascus doesn't have a dative here (after le) so perhaps you are right. Maybe Damaisc was created in modern times, but traditionally it was Damascus, I should check Bedell's Bible.


That's cool. So in Ulster it has all three cases:
An teach
Fear an tí
i dtoigh

Is this right?

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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

I agree, theoritically if Damasc was taken into Old Irish, than Damascus should have been Damasc. The apocapy of latin terminations (i.e "us"; "um" etc..) of loanwards, where the "us" was knocked off, was common practise in Old Irish, so, Latin: *Bacallum (staff) --> Old. Ir Bachall



I agree here also, old Irish o-stems (first declention of modern Irish, where nouns ended in a broad consonant e.g fear > old.Ir fer) were broadened in the old Irish dative. So "Fer" would be "Fiur" in the the old. Ir Dative singular. Usually more modern representations of the real dative of Fear would have been "Fior" as often the "u" morphed into "o", this is very archaic now though, but still the dative plurl still exists: feraibh--> Fearaibh.

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

Actually, could anybody recommend a good source for the declensions in Classical Irish. There are some great ones for Old Irish, like David Stifter's Sengoidelc or SeanGhaeilge gan dua ag Pádraig Ó Fhiannachta, but I don't know of one for Classical Irish.

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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

You'll find some in 'Stair na Gaeilge' and in 'Grammar of Ulster Irish in 1600' (that's not the right title but it's something like that, but anyway it's Classical Irish, it's very different from modern Ulster Irish).



teach
toí / toighe /ti:/
toigh /ti/

You can use "toigh" alone without "i" : bhí mé toigh Hiúdaí. I think you can also say "Chuaigh mé toigh Hiúdaí".

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

Maybe a wandering Saracen told them the proper pronunciation was Dimashq.

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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).