Greetings, I am a new learner here, and excited at the wealth of language wisdom to be found on this board! Maybe you can help me with this. I am looking for something that might help me say: "Encompassing All" or "All my Kin" or "All my Kindred" - Or any variation along those lines... I understand that those might have completely different meanings in the Irish Gaeilge, but I would love to hear any suggestions. Slán!

Welcome to ILF! To start the conversation, what about 'Mo mhuintir ar fad'.

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there are a few ways of saying this in Irish,

Mo mhuintir go léir (as Saoirse suggested)
Mo shíol go léir
Mo chineál go léir
Mo bhunadh go léir

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Some more:

Mo chairde gaoil uilig/uile go léir
Mo ghaolta agus mo chairde uilig/uile go léir
Mo lucht gaoil uilig/uile go léir
Mo ghaolta duine uilig/uile go léir

cairde gaoil "friends and relatives; dear friends"
gaolta agus cairde "friends and relatives"
lucht gaoil "relatives"
gaolta duine "one's relatives"

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
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), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

These three strike me as a bit odd. Surely "mo shìol" would be "my progeny"/descendants, whereas but cineál and bunadh refer more to an ancestral source than to the current crop?

Muinntir has less "direction" in it and seems more appropriate.

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A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

I am so grateful for all these replies, and its certainly given me a greater sense of the words that might encapsulate this idea, and their varied inflection of meaning... mhuintir is especially nice, a word I had not encountered previously... I think that might work a treat!

Just a quick note to clarify that the basic word is muintir, and it adds the "h" for pronunciation/grammatical reasons due to the word mo coming before it, to yield mo mhunitir. The same sort of thing was happening in some of the other choices you were given, but I agree that mo mhuintir seems to fit what you want best.

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

Yes síol can mean progeny, but it is also used to discuss the family as a whole, including the ancestors that have gone before and that are yet to come. In that sense its often used interchangeably with clann and Muinntear (Modern Muintir).

e.g. Síol Mhuireadhaigh etc...

I think Muintir is the better option, as its probably the expression that is most known.

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Can you give an example? My thinking is that it's still a bit odd to use either síol or clann with the point of reference being anything other than the common ancestor (as in your last example) -- "mo shíol" feels like it should be equivalent to "síol Néill". (But ten again, I still don't speak Irish, so what would I know...?)

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A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

Ah I see!

No That's true, its not usually used independently from the eponymous ancestor. Actually síol is usually used to refer to a sept of family.However I can't see how it can't be used in that way to mean 'race', 'kin' etc.... For instance, in Dineen (pg. 1035) síol is entered as figuratively meaning race, clan. Also, in FGB síol is given as meaning race:

Síol (3): http://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/s%C3%ADol

Likewise, sliocht is figuratively used very similarly to síol in the sense of progeny, descendant. sept.

Sliocht (2): http://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/sliocht_

However in the De Bhaldraithe's English-Irish version accompanying FGB, sliocht is given as a general term for 'race'.

http://www.focloir.ie/en/dictionary/ei/ ... ce#race__4

In that vain, I see no reason to why síol can't be used for 'kin'. However, I agree, síol is ambiguous, as if I were to see mo shíol without any context, I would take it to mean progeny.

Actually, revisiting the OP's original post, I think m'fhine may be a better option for my kin, as muintir is very much all encompassing. You don't have to be related to be considered as part of someone's muintir. That's just splitting hairs though!



Ah Niall, you know an awful lot of things, a lot more than me , put the fishing rod away

Cian

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