Hi,
so totally new to this sight so I hope I don't offend anyone. I am going into Real Estate and have always been quite proud if not ignorant about my Irish American heritage. I am trying to get a domain name and want to use something Gaelic. I was thinking of HappyHome.com but I can not seem to find the correct Gaelic translation for the term happy home. I also wouldn't have the slightest idea of pronunciation either, so help there would be great too. If anyone can help me I would really appreciate it. If you have something else that might work better I am open to suggestions.

Baile Áthais

is what I'd use.

Baile = home
Áthais = the genitive case of "áthas", which means "hapiness".

(Message edited by Fear_na_mBróg on July 27, 2005)

'Bally Aw-hish' might be used as an approximate english pronunciation.

I'd say:

Bol-ya Aw-hish

I don't think a direct translation works here. In any event would the correct direct translation not be "baile áthasach?".

How about just "Sa bhaile".com? Which simply means "At home" with all the happiness of being at home implied... (Pronounced "sa wal-ya")

I'd say /b(w)a(i)l'ja:his'/ with the letters in brackets to denote a very very slight w off-glide and a more prominent i on-glide. For me, /bal'@/ + /a:his'/ results in a yod /j/ appearing (perhaps to prevent a hiatus?) between both words. This is not the /j/ in 'mo dhia' ('my god') /mo jia/, but I guess an allophone articulated between alveolar ridge and hard palate as the tongue moves from /l'/ to /a:/.

Sometimes I think there are 4 languages on Daltaí: Gaeilge, English, grammar, and phonetics. 4 official lanaguges, and not everyone speaks them...

If you read my and Fear's phonetics together quickly, there's not really a heck of a lot of difference. Actually, I based mine on the signs one sees sometimes outside of peoples' homes with the name of their home on it. These tend to be anglicized renderings of Irish.

Baile is never pronounced "bal-ya", because single slender L is never pronounced "ly" - anywhere in the Gaeltacht. It's more like the English L in "live".

Double slender L is pronounced as "ly".

It is "baile", not "baille". I've never understood why all English speakers learning Irish pronounce single slender l as "ly", maybe because they dunno how to make a difference between single broad one and single slender one.


I'd say:

"Bol-ya Aw-hish" > no

Natives say "bwah-lih aw-hish" (Munster & Connemara) or "bwah-lih aa-hish" (Donegal).

that /j/ allophone I spoke about seems not too far from /L'/.

Does it become /L'/ and not /l'/ due to the influence of the stressed initial syllable in 'áthais'? as the /R/s /N/ and /L/s are more stressed and/or longer.

If anyone wants to make an /L'/ it is like the 'll' in the english 'million' where the tip of the tongue is at the bottom of the lower teeth, and the tongue is pushed forward to fill the area between the teeth ridge and the beginning of the hard palate.

Old fashoioned /d'/, and /t'/ and /N'/ are made the same way.

>Does it become /L'/ and not /l'/ due to the influence of the stressed initial syllable in 'áthais'?

It’s due to the fact that they don’t know how /l’/ is to be pronounced, that’s all :-)