Dia dhuit.

In September I posted on this forum, asking how to alphabetize Irish place-names. I'm readying my 1995 Celtic fantasy Hunter of the Light for re-issue and e-publication, and wanted to ensure the "Places" glossary listed all locations in proper order.

I received marvelous help (go raibh maith agaibh!). But while sorting out that issue, it became clear that at least one of the place-names I use in the book wasn't quite right. Naturally, that made me wonder what other place-names might give Gaelige-speaking readers pause.

The glossary contains 115 place-names. Some few are invented; the bulk are derived from existing locations. As the story takes place in an alternate, ancient Éirinn, when a place has both an older and a more modern spelling, the older one is definitely preferred.

It's a huge ask, but is anyone willing to take a look at my list of places and make corrections/offer suggestions?
Míle buíochas as do chabhair.

I would definitely be willing to help out with this project. My skill set typically lies within the realm of grammar, so I will be able to review many of the place names and correct and grammatical mistakes that I notice. If a place name contains vocabulary that seems doubtful or inaccurate, I would also be willing to provide feedback on that. I hope that I can be of assistance to you and your book.

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I'm an intermediate speaker of the Corca Dhuibhne dialect of Irish and also have knowledge on the old spelling
Soir gaċ síar, fé ḋeireaḋ thíar

I think I suggested to you in September that you should post your place-name list here so we could take a look at it. While you're welcome to get specific help from individual members, the more eyes you get on these place-names, the more likely it is that any error will be spotted.

I think the issue that was found with the place-name in your last post was a grammatical one (though I could be mistaken). Aside from grammatical issues, though, there are a few other considerations you may need to take into account. For example, you say it's set in ancient Ireland and that you'd like spellings to reflect that, which I suspect means that era-appropriate place-names are important to you. If so, we'll need some rough idea when the book is set. If it predates the 16th or 17th century (which I assume it does if you're referring to ancient Ireland), place-names could be spelled radically differently. Many places and place-names will have also come into existence after this point, and the further back you go the less information we have about what different places were called. We have some very early names for Ireland and for important sites like Tara and the four provinces, but for less important towns or villages we have significantly less. So, you'll need to decide if you're alright with including anachronistic references to places which may not have existed at the time your novel is set, or if you're ok with using modern names for places which may have existed, but which would have been called by a different name, one which may now be lost to the sands of time. If your novel predates about the 6th century, we actually have very little writing at all, and I don't believe many place-names survive at all from before this point. If it's set before about the 4th century we don't even have Irish writing surviving which could inform our knowledge of what the language would have looked like, much less what different places were named.

You have a lot to consider, if you want to go down that route, and places in your book could end up called something that looks radically different. If you want to avoid this, you could of course decide just to stick with the names you're already using, and just to correct anything that looks grammatically incorrect, or otherwise unlikely for a placename in a Modern Irish context.

Go raibh maith agaibh - thank you both for your kind responses.

Ade - yes, An t-Ard Achadh didn't sit right with anyone. But I'm back with a new ask instead of a list, because I'm afraid that in my last post, I explained the context for these place-names poorly. My novel isn't historical fiction; it's pure fantasy. It isn't set in ancient Ireland - or in any time period - but in an alternate ancient Ireland of my creation. While my Éirinn has roots in Irish mythology and folklore, the strongest cultural connections I make are in the spelling of proper names (Fionnghuala, Domhnall), the use of a few common phrases (mó mhúirnín), and geography. The outline of my world is a map of Ireland (with a couple of magical isles floating in the western seas), and while my Dún na nGall is an entirely different place with an entirely different origin story than the one that exists in reality, it is located in the same spot on the map as the real one, and it bears the same name. My goal is to spell the names right, use older spellings if there's more than one option, and list the names in correct alphabetical order in the Glossary.

Séamus - I'd very much like to take you up on your offer. As Ade points out, making radical changes to the Éirinn that already exists in print would be a massive undertaking that could only serve to delay and complicate the process of making my novel accessible once more. Your skill set is ideal for proofing and correcting where needed ... how can I get in touch with you to take this project to the next step? I'm way excited to work with you.

Again, mile buíochas as do chineáltas.

Perhaps that slightly different context makes the task a bit easier, but, I'm now going to suggest that you should probably run these proper nouns and common phrases past the forum. You refer to "my Éirinn" in your post, for example. This is incorrect grammatically. You can say "to/from/in Éirinn" but, you would say "my Éire" or "the name of the country is "Éire". Similarly, mó mhúirnín is nonsensical. What you intended, clearly, was mo mhuirnín, but even then, you could not call somebody this when speaking to them. Instead, you would have to say a mhuirnín. Consider whether you want to have things like these checked and potentially corrected.

Sorry for the slow response, I have been quite busy lately and haven't had much time to respond. I have not been very active in terms of outside work/projects in regards to things such as this, so if you would like to get in contact with me, I might be able to provide you with my email on a more private third party app of your choosing.



The word Éirinn (i.e. the dative of Éire) is commonly used in dialect instead of the more standardised/traditional word (this is even where we get the Anglicised expression Erin go Bragh), so technically this context wouldn't be incorrect (however, if the term were to be used in a more historical or midaeval setting as is suggested in the book then Éire or even Ériu would be more appropriate).

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I'm an intermediate speaker of the Corca Dhuibhne dialect of Irish and also have knowledge on the old spelling
Soir gaċ síar, fé ḋeireaḋ thíar