Proper nouns

Iwasfrozen

One thing that struck me learning Irish in school was the tendency of Irish, much more then the other language I learned German, to translate proper nouns. And I suppose while I didn't think much of it at the time beyond mild annoyance at my teacher addressing me by the translated version of my name I now find myself wondering why Irish seems to do this much more then any other language. Don't get me wrong for I can understand the use of translated Irish language place names within Ireland, after all in many cases the Irish name was the original one. But this habit goes beyond Ireland even to places were Irish has never been the dominant language. (Nua Eabhrac being an example)

Can any Irish speakers shed some light here? Why did all my Irish teachers feel the need to translate the names of the students in his and her class
while my German teacher was content not to? Is it related to Irish being a minority language? Or is it because those interested in the Irish language (not an unfair assumption to make of irish teachers) are interested in seeing it's revival and feel Irish people should have Irish names?

Micilin Muc

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

One thing that struck me learning Irish in school was the tendency of Irish, much more then the other language I learned German, to translate proper nouns. And I suppose while I didn't think much of it at the time beyond mild annoyance at my teacher addressing me by the translated version of my name I now find myself wondering why Irish seems to do this much more then any other language. Don't get me wrong for I can understand the use of translated Irish language place names within Ireland, after all in many cases the Irish name was the original one. But this habit goes beyond Ireland even to places with very little Irish language influence (Nua Eabhrac being an example).

Can any Irish speakers shed some light here? Why did all my Irish teachers feel the need to translate the names of the students in his and her class
while my German teacher was content not to? Is it related to Irish being a minority language? Or is it because those interested in the Irish language (not an unfair assumption to make of irish teachers) are interested in seeing it's revival and feel Irish people should have Irish names?

I wouldn't call New York a place with very little Irish language influence. Tens of thousands of Irish speakers have emigrated to New York over the years. It's not the same with Los Angeles, which isn't translated.

As regards people's names, I think it's important that primary school teachers can provide a student with the Irish translation of their name - as long as the name is originally Gaelic to begin with. It's great for educating the student about their ancestors' Gaelic past. But I think it's wrong to call a student by their Irish name, unless the child and parent wish so!

My surname isn't Gaelic and I think it's a bit silly to translate the name to Irish when the name has no Gaelic roots. Then again, the Normans came over here and translated their names to Irish to become more Irish than the Irish themselves

Iwasfrozen

Micilin Muc wrote: »

I wouldn't call New York a place with very little Irish language influence. Tens of thousands of Irish speakers have emigrated to New York over the years. It's not the same with Los Angeles, which isn't translated.

As regards people's names, I think it's important that primary school teachers can provide a student with the Irish translation of their name - as long as the name is originally Gaelic to begin with. It's great for educating the student about their ancestors' Gaelic past. But I think it's wrong to call a student by their Irish name, unless the child and parent wish so!

My surname isn't Gaelic and I think it's a bit silly to translate the name to Irish when the name has no Gaelic roots. Then again, the Normans came over here and translated their names to Irish to become more Irish than the Irish themselves

Hmm, I guess that's true I changed it to non dominant language. Funny you mention Los Angeles since it's still in it's original Spanish. I always Irish teachers desire to translate people's names as very odd. Sure tell them what it is if they want to know it but don't address them by it. But then I suspect it is related to Irish being a minority language. My name is anglicised from it's original gaelic (Irish or Scottish in Ulster it's hard to tell) so I was easy pickings for them.