My sister and I would like to get matching tattoos written in Ogham, but we're not exactly fluent in Irish Gaelic or the Ogham alphabet lol. I managed to find the Irish gaelic translation for Sunshine through some free website, it said it was Grian, is this correct? The other phrase is Moon Beam, but there was no translation for Beam in Gaelic, so I substituted Burst instead. The translation they gave me was Luisne Scairt. So basically, I'm just hoping for a real person's input on both phrases. Moon Burst is fine, but maybe someone else will have another idea that works better. If anyone could help, I'd appreciate it, and hopefully this wasn't too confusing for you all. Thanks.
Chelsea

Don't pay any attention to on-line translators. They generate crap (for more on this, see this post: http://www.bitesizeirishgaelic.com/blog ... anslators/).

You'd do best, I think, with "Sunlight" and "Moonlight":

Sunlight: Solas na Gréine

Moonlight: Solas na Gealaí

Or you could go with "Sun/Moon Ray":

Ruithne na Gréine

Ruithne na Gealaí

As far as Ogham goes, Irish is written using the same basic alphabet as English (minus a few letters and plus a diacritic mark or two), so most Irish speakers aren't going to be able to help you much with that one.

Wait for more input.

Redwolf

Fáilte dtí'n fóram! Welcome to the forum!

Right, first of all Ogham:

Ogham seazed to be used in Ireland as a writing system during the 6th century A.D. The ogham alphabet consists of scrathches on the corner of rocks, that are read from the bottom right hand side upwards and around to the left hand side. They consist of not much more than chieftan or family names or indicating the line of decent from importnat chieftans. All names are given in the genitive case.

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ogham

The horizontal lines are the vowels or consonants and the perpindicular line stands for the corner of the rock itself.

However, ogham was known by some monastic scholars in the Middle-ages as there is a key explaining the ogham inscriptions found within the "Book of Ballymote". This is Ireland's version of the Rosetta Stone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Book_ ... e_170r.jpg

After the 6th century, a Gaelic version of the Roman Alphabet began being used; as writting on vellum/ meamram (Irish), paper made from calf skin, became the norm.

a b c d e f g h i l m n o p r s t u

Is this the font you want? or do you still want it in ogham.

Translation:



"Grian" is the "sun"

Sunshine- "taitneamh (na) gréine, gathanna (na) gréine (sun-rays), luisne gréine (glow of sun) lonradh na gréine (brightness of the sun), solas na gréine (sun-light)

Moon Beam!

"luisne Scairt" What website you get these off?

"Scairt" means diaphragm or a shout or call

"luisne" means glow or blush

"luisne na gealaí, gathanna na gealaí" (moon beams)

Wait for some more input! Crossed with Redwolf!

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

I think I figured out where the online translator went wrong. In its meaning as "to shout out", FGB also has as a possibility for scairt "to burst out", so the automatic translator may have found some messed up Irish online where someone put luisne and scairt together, trying to get "sunburst".

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

The word for "beam (of light)" is ga.

Ga Gréine Ga Gréine "Sunbeam"

Ga Gealaí Ga Gealaiġe "Moonbeam"

(See FGB ga1 3.)

These mean "a sunbeam" and "a moonbeam", respectively.

Await further input ...

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WARNING: Intermediate speaker - await further opinions, corrections and adjustments before acting on my advice.
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect.
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), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Oh wow, now I think I'm the one that's confused I like all of the translations though, that's probably the hardest part. But it seems like I wouldn't be too far off the mark going with any one of them, am I right?

An Cionnfhaolach- I can't remember the exact website but it was really simple and not at all impressive, lol. And yes, we do still want it in Ogham, but I may be able to convince my sister to the font you offered, I actually kind of like that, so thanks for introducing it to me.

And thank you all for the help, and the warm welcome! I think you've peaked my interest in the language a bit more, anyone have any resources on learning more?
Chelsea

Here's some ogham for the Ga Gréine - Ga Gealaí version (the old spelling of Gealaí is Gealaiġe):




As for learning materials, there's plenty to get you started right here in Cúinne an Whombat - Wombat's Guide to Irish.

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WARNING: Intermediate speaker - await further opinions, corrections and adjustments before acting on my advice.
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect.
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), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

No that's great if you still want it in Ogham! The reason I suggested the sean-chló font is because we get some requests looking for Ogham; but people don't really understanding what Ogham writing is. They confuse Ogham with the sean-chló or we get people looking for Gaelic translations, but they don't realise that there are 3 forms of Gaelic: Irish Gaelic shortened to Irish, Scottish Gaelic (Can't be shortened because of the confusion with Scots) and Gaelic of Man (Isle of Man). So, you can see why we presume that the OP knows nothing until we can be sure!



,Wow Breandán, how did you manage that? I also like the use of the singular "ga" instead of the plural "gathanna". If we are going for older Irish, why not go the whole hog!

Ga Gré(i)ne

and

Ga Gelaiche

How would you present the tattoo? Because if you were going to write it perpendicular instead of horizontally than you would have to start from the bottom up, as Ogham is read from the bottom up!

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

I have an Ogham font on my computer and do a screen capture of the finished text. I got my spellings from Dinneen (1927). Yours are older?

There's also gath gaṫ and gathán gaṫán for ga, but there is no síneadh fada or ponc séimhithe in Ogham anyway.


Simply rotate the above 90 degrees anticlockwise (left side down).

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WARNING: Intermediate speaker - await further opinions, corrections and adjustments before acting on my advice.
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect.
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), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Breandán- Thank you so much, that's perfect, and it fits exactly what we had in mind. We do plan on putting it vertically, the tattoos will be on our feet, so thanks for answering my next question by telling us how to flip it. And thanks for the website, I'll definitely be looking at it when I get the chance!

Thanks again for everything, you've all been tremendously helpful.
Chelsea