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Non-Irish speaking friend is trying to translate something his mother called him?

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  • 24-01-2016 11:59am
    #1
    skyscraperblue
    Registered Users Posts: 747 ✭✭✭


    A friend of mine lost his mother over the summer. She used to call him by a particular term, which he believes was in Irish, but as he's not an Irish speaker he doesn't know what it meant or how to spell it.

    The best approximation of the pronunciation we can come up with is "allanagh stew-keen". I don't think my own Irish is good enough to match this properly to a phrase. Does anyone have any idea?

    (I presumed it was a term of endearment but he said it could as easily be something insulting that she just used as one.)

    It would really mean a lot if anyone had any ideas!


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    #2
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,047 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Right. :D I am absolutely not an Irish speaker. But. the first word is addressing a child and in the second word the een means little.

    Irish speaking husband has now got involved and says the 'stewk' bit (I don't know how it is spelled) means something like sulky. So it means something like 'you grumpy little child', or maybe 'o cross one!' No doubt the kind of double edged affection that a mother would come up with!


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    #3
    Maidhci
    Registered Users Posts: 864 ✭✭✭Maidhci


    skyscraperblue wrote: »
    A friend of mine lost his mother over the summer. She used to call him by a particular term, which he believes was in Irish, but as he's not an Irish speaker he doesn't know what it meant or how to spell it.

    The best approximation of the pronunciation we can come up with is "allanagh stew-keen". I don't think my own Irish is good enough to match this properly to a phrase. Does anyone have any idea?

    (I presumed it was a term of endearment but he said it could as easily be something insulting that she just used as one.)

    It would really mean a lot if anyone had any ideas!

    As far as I know, Allanagh comes from 'leanbh', which is the Irish for a child....alanna is often used as a term of endearment when addressing a young child.

    I think 'stew-keen' as you write it, could be from the word 'stócach' which is the Irish for boyfriend but is very often used in the Gaeltacht as a term referring to young fellow or young man, not derogatory in any sense. Adding ín or een could be used as a term of endearment again or for a younger version of stócach.

    Hope this helps in some way.


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    #4
    Dughorm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 895 ✭✭✭Dughorm


    I agree with Looksee - stuacán comes to mind for "stew-keen" http://www.teanglann.ie/ga/fgb/stuacán

    What part of the country is your friend's mother from?


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    #5
    Dughorm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 895 ✭✭✭Dughorm


    I agree with Looksee - stuacán comes to mind for "stew-keen" http://www.teanglann.ie/ga/fgb/stuacán

    What part of the country is your friend's mother from?


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