Luas Sign

flanno

The Luas stop in St. James's Hospital reads "Ospideal San Seamas" . 'Naomh' is the Irish for saint not 'SAN'.
For the sake of the Irish Language change the sign to 'Ospidèal Naomh Shèamais'


Contact Luas
By Phone
Luas Customer Care: 1800 300 604
(lines open from 9 am until 5 pm Monday to Friday)
In writing
Luas Customer Care
Connex / Luas Depot
Red Cow Roundabout
Clondalkin
Dublin 22

Cal

Good point. I'd love to know where their translator learnt Irish. The translations are very poor at best and made up off the cuff on others.

Cal

simu

You can get "san" sometimes in Irish as well - San Nioclás for example.

I found this by googling:

The word ?Saint? was not used by the church until about the 11th century so there was Patrick, Bríd, Colmcille, etc. Even up to today we say ?Lá Fhéile Pádraig and Lá Fhéile Bríd." Over time the title came into the Irish language from the latin ?Sanctus? and they used to write ?Sanct Bríd - Sanctus Patricius? for St Brigit and St Patrick. After that the word ?Naomh? appeared and at first it was put after the name, Pádraig Naomh but under the influence of Latin and English the word was used before the name. The word ?San? is used here also like in ?Meánscoil San Nioclás? in Ring, Co Waterford. The rule of thumb it seems is that we use the word ?Naomh? for Irish saints and the word ?San? for the others.

From here:
http://www.waterford-today.ie/index.php?id=10874&what=2&issue=208

Hagar

I went to Scoil San Seamas and that was on the school crest. I think its just another word for naomh.

I just know this is going to sound dumb but I would rather have them put up bad Irish rather than no Irish.

Cal

I agree with the idea that bad Irish is better than no Irish. Upon doing a little more investigation I can see that they are in fact 'literally' correct in their translations. But they are not the translations normally seen on other road signs etc.

Cal

Hagar

Most of the signs are what we used to call "Bearlachas" ie English translated a word at a time into Irish with no thought given to syntactical correctness or idiomatic use.

Jayses I think I'll read dat again meself it sounds beleedin' massive.

egan007

Dun na ngall

yeah right....

It's Tir Connaill

saxonirish

dudara

That's a good point, I'd forgotten about Saint Nick. Still though, I'd never heard that rule of thumb about distinguishing between Irish and other saints before.

Cal

Hagar wrote:

Most of the signs are what we used to call "Bearlachas" ie English translated a word at a time into Irish with no thought given to syntactical correctness or idiomatic use.

But which then should Luas use as a transtation of Stillorgan?

1) Stigh Lorgan (as used by Luas)
or
2) Teach Lorgáin (The place of the house of Lorcan) Historical translation.

To me it looks like Luas are going with the Bearlachas.

Cal

Gael

No, "San" is actually another Irish word for a saint, though "Naomh" is the most common form.

See here, and insert the word "San".

http://www.csis.ul.ie/focloir/

Although the people at Luas have made some very bad translations. I heard about the one where "Look Right" was translated as "Féach an Ceart" :rolleyes:

Hagar

As kids we always called it Mickey Marbh.

flanno

Good to see a bit of activity on this thread anyway!

Thanks for the opinions folks, just thought it was a strange choice especially considering that the hospital itself goes by Ospidèal Naomh Shèamais.

Shoolaboola

no, san is used as well as in "san nioclás"

stoopidkid

deanann siaad ceiliuradh ar oiche san sheain san iarthar in mi meitheamh

Breezer

Irish roadsigns in general tend to be very inaccurate, especially when the genitive (Tuiseal Ginideach) comes into it. The Irish word "áth" means "ford" and "átha" is the genitive form meaning "of the ford" as in "Baile átha Cliath - Town of the Ford of the Hurdles". Yet the amount of times I've seen Dublin translated as "átha cliath" or "of the ford of the hurdles" and sandyford as "átha an ghainimh" - "of the ford of the sand."

While I'm on the subject, I've also seen "Sandycove" which should be "Cuas an Ghainimh" translated as "Cuas na Gaineamha" - "gaineamh", being masculine, should take "an" rather than "na" in the genitive, along with a séimhiú, and the ending should be made slender rather than adding an "a".

"Glenageary" should be "Gleann na gCaorach" - "Glen of the sheep" and not "Gleann na Gaorthaibh" which I don't think means anything.

"Albert Road" should be "Bóthar Ailbhe" not "Bóthar na Albert" - in which case Albert would be either feminine or plural (and that would still be wrong because even if you didn't translate the name itself it should then be either "Bóthar na hAlbert" or "Bóthar na n-Albert").

And I'd love to know why Iarnród Éireann have recently changed the Irish form of "Sydney Parade" from "Paráid Shidní" to "Paráid Sydney."

But "féach an ceart" is the cream of the crop without a doubt!

Anyway, I could go on forever so I'm going to finish ranting now.

Hagar

Clog amach the Luas is coming?