Hello all,

My fiance and I are getting married in about six weeks, and I'd like to have the inside of his wedding band engraved. He grew up and went to school in Ireland, but we live in the United States. Early in our relationship, we discussed the phrase "anam cara", as understood to mean a friend of the soul. Not a soulmate, but something deeper and with a more spiritual dimension. He agreed that, at least for him, that was the understood meaning of the phrase.

I'd like to engrave that on the inside of his wedding ring, but I want to make sure that the spelling is correct and I'm not missing any accent marks. This is the way that he and I have spelled it in text conversations, but he hasn't lived in Ireland in years and I'm new to learning the language, so my spelling is pretty atrocious...

I started Googling around, and I found a lot of people insisting on other spellings: "anam chara" "anamchara" "aman cara" (which I'm fairly certain can't be right), "m'anmcara" (???) and so on.

Help a girl out, won't you? I think I'm OK using the spelling that he and I have used in the past, but I would like to not screw this up.

Thanks for your thoughts!

The word is anamchara or anam-chara which means "soul friend" in the sense of a spiritual adviser or a chaplain.

anamchara – a spiritual adviser; a chaplain

m'anamchara – my spiritual adviser; my chaplain

...just to clarify, anamchara in Irish - unlike its English equivalent - is restricted to religious and spiritual contexts; it is not a term of endearment!

Dictionary definition:

http://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/anamchara

Those that do recommend or use it as a term of endearment only do so under the direct influence of English.

If you were hoping that it was used to express love I would recommend something like:

mo chroí 'my heart'
mo chuisle 'my pulse'

or when speaking directly to the person (Vocative):

a chroí 'my heart'
a chuisle 'my pulse, beat of heart'

Edited: PS.

Congratulations on getting married, níl leigheas ar an ngrá ach pósadh 'there is no cure to love but marraige'. But then again, Ní féasta go rósta, ‘is ní céasta go pósta 'There is no feast like a roast, and no torture like a marraige'.

Cian

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

Also, if you literally want to say "soul friend," it would be "Cara Anama," not "Anam Cara." So even if it worked conceptually, it wouldn't work grammatically.

I agree with going with traditional Irish endearments, such as "a chuisle" or "a chroí." Or perhaps a short phrase, such as "Tá mo chroí istigh ionat" (my heart is within you).

Redwolf