I'm looking to start an Irish-American students club, and my friends and I would like an Irish name ... so far I'm thinking of "Irish-American Student's Organisation" or something along those lines. So would that be ..

Cumann na Scoláirí Meiriceánaigh Gaeil

I know that's wrong, but I can't find an adjective meaning Irish or American, just the nouns. Could I get some help, please?

Maybe "Cumann na Mac Léinn Gael-Mheiriceánach" ?

Shouldn't it be "Cumann na bMic Léinn Gael-Mheiriceánach", or am I getting this wrong?

Thanks for your help, by the way

Lughaidh's suggestion is gramatically correct.

Nominative singular: mac
Nominative plural: mic
Genitive singular: mic
Genitive plural: mac

What you're looking at in:

Cumann na Mac Léinn Gael-Mheiriceánach

is the genitive plural.

(NB. You're right in thinking that there should be an urú on "Mac", but there is no urú for M. Note that "b" is the urú for "p", eg. "úinéar na bpeann".

The only thing I'd question is whether that hyphen is justified? Lughaidh is fluent so I'll trust him that "gael" can be used as a prefix here. Maybe one of the following:

a) Cumann na Mac Léinn Gael-Mheiriceánach
b) Cumann na Mac Léinn Gaelmheiriceánach

or "Cumann Aos Léinn Gael-Mheiriceánach" to avoid problems with the pronoun Gestapo!

Aonghas > what are you talking about?

I'd say Gael-Mheiriceánach, with two words and a hyphen as in "Nua-Ghaeilge" etc.

i'm afraid I don't understand why "mic" is the genitive singular and "mac" is the genitive plural ... I mean, for example, in Cumann na mBan thhey used the plural..

and yeah, sorry, the urú for "m" slipped my mind..

quote:

i'm afraid I don't understand why "mic" is the genitive singular and "mac" is the genitive plural ... I mean, for example, in Cumann na mBan thhey used the plural.

"mac" is the plural just as "ban" is the plural... in the genitive case. It's plain to see that "mac" is indeed the singular when you're talking about the nominative case, but we aren't.

NS: bean
NP: mná
GS: mná
GP: ban

"bean" is a bad example however because it's irregular.

In Irish, a noun either has a strong plural or a weak plural. If the plural is weak, then its nominative singular and plural is a mirror image of its genitive singular and plural, for example:

NS: bád
NP: báid
GS: báid
GP: bád

Then again though, you have nouns that have a strong plural:

NS: cúirt
NP: cúirteanna
GS: cúirte
GP: cúirteanna

There's only two types of nouns that have a weak plural:

1) Masculine nouns that simply take an "i" to get their plural, eg: bád/báid, capall/capaill, fear/fir
("mac" is in this group, even though it's slightly irregular in that its genitive should be "maic" and not "mic").

2) Nouns ending in "ach", whether they be masculine or feminine.

Here's a feminine one:

NS: báisteach
NP: báisteacha
GS: báistí
GP: báisteach

Here's a masculine one:

NS: éireannach
NP: éireannaigh
GS: éireannaigh
GP: éireannach

No other groups of nouns have a weak plural. "bean" is simply irregular, there's no explanation as to why it has a weak plural (if even you can say that, it's mutated a little bit, that "e" is gone from in the middle of it).

Mac - fireann!

Aos Léinn - idir fir agus mná. Táid ann a thógfadh raic faoin "idirdhealú" a bhaineann le Mac Léinn!

Pé scéal é, ag magadh (orthu sin a thógfadh raic) a bhíos.

Deirtear "mac léinn" nuair is mná atá i gceist fosta. Chan minic a deirtear "(i)níon léinn".

A Chara,
Altho i see no problem with what's given above, might i be so bold as to suggest something else...

In my college the Students union is called ;
Aontas na Mac Léinn
And the national body is called;
Aontas na Mac Léinn in Eirinn

So b'fhéidir you could use;
Aontas na Mac Léinn Gael-Mheiriceánach - The union of Irish-American students.. Cumann is commonly (but by no means exclusively) used in political parties..

Fear na;

Thank you again for your help; it seems like every time i ask a question you've got a great & detailed response. just one question; how do you pronounce "mná"? Is the n ignored?

Domhnall;

Thanks for your help, too. i need to get back to my friends with suggestions :)

"how do you pronounce "mná"? Is the n ignored?"

Nope, in the standard ar aon nós, it's muh-naw but pushed together. I know Connemara Irish says it as if the n is an r, mrá, dunno about other dialects. I'm no good on phonectics or IPA or anything but I hope that was clear enough.

Mná

> Donegal [mræ:] (æ is that sound you have in US English "have", a very open a sound)
Connemara [mra:] (with an a as in English "law")
Munster [mna:] (same "aw"-sound)

"airgead"
"bolg"
"mná"

I pronounce the three of these with an extra hidden syllable.

airgead = ar a gid
bolg = bu lug
mná = mi ná

Also called an epenthetic vowel and in Irish a schwa (@) or some version of it, depending on context.

Aesthetically, it feels as if, when the tongue moves, one must articulate the epenthetic. To not do so, would be wrong, as it closes the space between two voiced consonants in the examples above very nicely and is an indispensible feature of the spoken tongue.