Hello!

I'm writing a fantasy novel set primarily in Ireland and I'm looking for some help translating a few words and phrases from English to Irish Gaelic. I've used an online translator but they tend to be unreliable. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Can someone please confirm or correct the following translations?

Fallen Ones - cinn Tite
Hall of Whispers - Halla na Cogar
Angelbirds (I know this isn't an actual bird, but if it were, how would it translate?) - éin aingeal or aingealéin? (Would prefer one word if possible)

Having some knowledge of other languages (but not Gaelic), I understand that sometimes literal translations don't carry the same intended meaning, or would sound extremely odd, so if you have suggestions that would maintain the sense of mystique/fantasy while essentially maintaining the original meaning, that would be great.

Thank you!

"Cinn tite" as a translation for "fallen ones" doesn't look right to me. Maybe another member can correct me on this, but I don't believe it's correct to use "cinn" (nominative plural of "ceann") to count people in Irish. Irish has a specific counting system for counting people, as opposed to objects. In this counting system, one person is counted simply as "duine", meaning "a person". By that logic, I'd suggest using a term like "daoine" or "muintir", both meaning "people", to best represent the meaning "ones". The difference between daoine and muintir is that the former refers to a collection of individuals who do not necessarily have anything in common, while the latter refers to a group of people with some connection, or kinship - "Muintir na h-Éireann" means "the Irish people".

You might also want to use a term other than "tite" for "fallen" because, as you noted, literal translations might not carry the intended meaning or may sound odd. Tearma.ie gives "laochra ar lár" as a translation of "fallen heroes". It literally translates to "heroes on the ground" but implies that they've fallen in battle.

With all that being said, you could possibly use any of the following for your translation:
laochra ar lar - fallen heroes
daoine ar lar - fallen people/persons
muintir ar lar - [a] fallen people/people connected by the fact that they have fallen [by some violent means perhaps]

For - Hall of Whispers - you need the genitive plural - Halla na gCogar.
For - Angelbirds - I suggest - Na hÉin Ainglí - but wait for confirmation from the others on that.

Thanks so much! Would muintir ar lar still work for a group that had "fallen" as in, they had chosen a path of darkness rather than light? Think "fallen angels" for example.

Thank you!

I would just like to confirm that the little g goes right before the uppercase C, as you have it above: Halla na gCogar, and not "Halla nag Cogar." Sorry, I am completely new to Gaelic and don't want to get it wrong!

Thanks,

-B

If you look at this grammar page (and scroll down) in the Teanglann on-line dictionary, you'll see it there.

http://www.teanglann.ie/en/gram/cogar

I've put the first letters of these words in capitals, as I thought that that is what you wanted.

Go raibh maith agat! (I hope that's correct for "thank you.") Yes, in my book it will be a proper noun, so use of capital letters is correct.

Here is one more. Would this be the correct way to translate "Castle of the Proud Ones?"

Caislén na Daoine Bródúil
or
Caislén na Muintir Bródúil

I suggest - Caisleán an Luchta Bródúla - but wait for confirmation from the others.

Actually, for fallen in that sense, I'd use uabhar.

Tearma.ie gives "aingeal uabhair" for "fallen angel". So, I'd suggest you use "Muintir Uabhair" for your translation of fallen ones.