Hi,

Our latest book has two characters who are not friends and who rub each other the wrong way every time they cross paths.
One of the characters is Irish.
In one of the scenes, when the other character says something veering into insult territory, the Irish replies with:
"Watch your mouth, amadáin."

Is that the correct usage of the word within the English sentence?

Or would that be preceded by "a"?

Thanks,

Chris

With an 'i' in it, amadán is in its plural form iirc

Talking to him/her directly, yes the vocative 'a' would be correct, but a hybrid sentence like that could easily do without

Or do something like "fainic do bhéal, a amadán"

instead of fainic maybe 'coimhéad' if the character is more of an Ulster origin

or even 'dún do chlab, a amadán' (very rude, "shut up foo' ")

The vocative of amadán is a amadáin, with the a preceding and the i to slenderise the final consonant.

(Usually "terms of endearment" ( ) are used uninflected, but amadán is inflected, at least sometimes in Conemara. See "The Irish of Iorras Aithneach County Galway", Brian Ó Curnáin, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies 2007, p. 545, for example.) (Edited in view of patrickjwalsh's comments below.)

Éist do bhéal is another way to say "watch your mouth/shut your mouth".

Éist do bhéal, a amadáin. "Watch your mouth, idiot."

_________________
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).

Metaphorical words are uninflected in the vocative - and these are often terms of endearment, e.g. a stór (literally "storehouse of treasure", referring to your "darling"). But amadán isn't metaphorical. Amadán fool always did refer to a person, and so is not a metaphorical use of a word usually not referring to a person to refer to a person. And so it is inflected.

Thanks for that clarification. (I was thrown off by Ó Curnáin's comment "when inflected", but I see now I misinterpreted it.)

_________________
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).