"Selkies (also known as silkies or selchies)

Does anybody know what the Irish for them are, please?

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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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Dia dhuit a chara,
I've had a look round - so the first thing is that this is an Orkney/Shetland and Faroese legend and selkie is simply their word for a seal - which comes from earlier Scots selich which in turn comes from old English seolh.
In the Secret of Roan Inish there's the song - An Mhaighdean Mhara - which apparently is what they would call it -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSKIML-PSJI

I see that there is a male equivalent - Dobhar-chú - there's a page on en.wikipedia about that

dobharchú is the Irish for otter.

Yes I realise that but it's also the name of a mythical creature
http://www.seancorcoranart.com/photo_4489512.html

I think it's simply "maighdean mhara" in the Irish tradition.

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

Isn't maighdean mhara a mermaid?

I remember often hearing when I was growing up that the Conghaile family had a connection with the seals. But there was no particular name for it.

Thanks guys.

_________________
___________________________________________________________

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.
___________________________________________________________

As far as I know.

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Yes but I think the Irish mermaids are women who transform into seals (?), I'm not sure they are women with a fish tail as in other countries' tales.

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

Muruach (Merrow). A friend of mine did a great deal of research on the selkie-like creatures of Ireland.

Redwolf

Women, and men as well. But yes...they're seals in the sea and human on land, just as the selkies in Scottish legends.

On an aside, this is probably why sailors in the Americas thought that manatees might be mermaids!

The English term for what the Scots call "selkies" is "merrow" in Ireland, and "muruach" is the Irish form, but "maighdean mhara" (for the females, anyway) is also used.

I don't know where the woman with a fish's tail legend came from, but definitely not from Ireland or Scotland.

Redwolf