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Tuatha Dé
btw it’s Túatha Dé (with a long u) in Old irish.
“Túath” meant tribe, nation in Old Irish (but in Modern Irish it has changed meaning in normal speech, but people know the old meaning it had in “Túatha Dé Danann”)This is an interesting story you are formulating. Definately keep us updated as to how things are going with it. Go n-éirí leat!
I sure will, I promise! My brother’s girlfriend is part Irish, and she’s professed a keen interest on seeing a copy of the manuscript when it’s finished. I promised to print one out for her, but I might post it on here, too, so you guys can read it. : )
One thing I have in my story is something called ríastrad, or “warp spasm” (I think). It’s the weird shape-shifting Cullen’s Hound underwent using earth power. Before researching it, I already had transformation in my story, but this will give the people of the place I’m writing about (Clann Mhórríona and Oileán Iathghlas na Mór Ríona, respectively) more of a Celtic flavor.
In my book, I use the term Morrigan a lot, namely it’s variations, Morrígan and Mórrígan. I treat the words literally and their uses are not interchangeable, so I feel it important that my readers know how to pronounce them, in case my story is ever read a loud. To verify, the accents lengthen the vowel?
Yes.
There is a speech-synthesiser here which will give you an idea:
http://www.abair.tcd.ie/index.php
But why the two variants?
Acute accents lengthen stressed vowels, in Modern Irish (not unstressed ones).
In Old Irish, we can’t be sure…The idea is that long ago in my tale, a powerful deity, the Mórrígan (Great Queen) visits an island (Oileán Iathghlas na Mór Ríona) and has children, or demigods. Her children, the Tuatha-dé-Mórríona, were born with magic powers, whereas the island’s regular inhabitants, na Seanoileánaigh (the Old Islanders), had none. Fruitful, at first, the Tuatha-dé-Mórríona eventually died out, except for two: Bran and Maeb.
When his mother, the Mórrígan, leaves the planet out of boredom, she leaves Bran and Maeb behind. As the demigods die, the magic on island fades. Seeking to restore and preserve it, Bran sleeps with earthly princesses, bestowing on their children magical powers similar to his mother’s. However, the magic is passed from mother to daughter; the son’s are born mortal and weak. As a result, a new line of queens rise to dominate the island. However, instead of being called Mórrígan, like the original goddess, Bran calls them Morrígan, as he considers them pale imitations, or ghosts, to the original.
As far as I know, there wouldn’t be any difference in the pronunciation of the words “Mórrígan” and “Morrígan” in Irish. Vowels before double consonants tend to be long anyways.
Bran calls them Morrígan, as he considers them pale imitations, or ghosts, to the original.
As an Irish speaker I would not get that sense; the shift from Mór -> Mor just looks like a misspelling to me! (Complicated by the fact that Mór means great)
But as most of year readers will not be Irish speakers, and as I expect you will be demonstrating what it means that is just a quibbleOf course. Please realize, I am not an Irish-speaker and am approaching this as an English-speaking person. Furthermore, the distinction I am making is of my own invention, and has nothing to do with Irish-Gaelic grammar.
Progress:
Looked for a word to describe a female demigod in my story from the eyes of a mortal man. Found the word bean sidhe (is this pronounced “ban-shee”?). This basically means “fairy woman” or “woman of the hills/mounds,” right? I’ve read that these so-called mounds were believed to be the final homes of the Tuatha-de-Danann (“People/Nation/Tribe of the goddess Danu”) after they lost in favor of the Gaelic Celts. In my story that I’m writing, I’ve changed the myth slightly, making the aes sidhe (“people of the mounds”) the Tuatha-de-Mór Ríona (“People/Nation/Tribe of the Great Queen”), instead of the Tuatha-de-Danann.
Found the word bean sidhe (is this pronounced “ban-shee”?).
yes, “ban-shee”
This basically means “fairy woman” or “woman of the hills/mounds,” right?
yes.
I’ve read that these so-called mounds were believed to be the final homes of theTuatha-de-Danann (“People/Nation/Tribe of the goddess Danu”)
Tuatha Dé Danann
making the aes sidhe (“people of the mounds”)
aos sidhe, in modern Irish
the Tuatha-de-Mór Ríona (“People/Nation/Tribe of the Great Queen”), instead of the Tuatha-de-Danann.
should be Tuatha na Mór-Ríona. No “de” there. Writing “Tuatha de Danann” isn’t right, there’s no “de” there, but “Dé” (god(dess) in the genitive case), and if you write Tuatha Dé Mór Ríona, it’s grammatically wrong and means “the tribes of the goddess of the great queen”.
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