# Irish: Banatee / bean na ti



## WHISPERER33

Hi,
_Bean na ti_ is the Irish for "woman of the house", who takes care of the children who stay in her home while they study Gaelic in an Irish school. Anyone know if "Banatee" is the anglizised spelling of it? It appears a lot in capital letters in a text, sometimes preceded by "the",and sometimes on its own. Can it also be the name of someone?
Cheers.


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## Chez

The spelling seems to be Bean an tí (I'm not Irish, but that's what it says on the internet). I don't know if 'Banatee' is an anglicised spelling – does the context give you any clues?


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## WHISPERER33

Yes, it is _bean an ti,_ I misspelt it. Context " he introduced them to Banatee (their Woman of the House) and Sava (her daughter)". "they arrive at Banatee's house", "they hear them exchanging words with the Banatee".


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## Dlyons

WHISPERER33 said:


> Yes, it is _bean an ti,_ I misspelt it. Context " he introduced them to Banatee (their Woman of the House) and Sava (her daughter)". "they arrive at Banatee's house", "they hear them exchanging words with the Banatee".




I've never seen it written like that, but that is the way "Bean an tí" is pronounced.  "Bean" -> "Ban",  "an tí"-> "a tee".


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## WHISPERER33

Yes, I think that's what it is. Unusual, though.
Many thanks


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## elirlandes

For info:

Bean = woman [pronounced _ban_]
teach = house [pronounced _chokh_] 
The genitive case of *teach* is "tí"[pronounced _tee_]

bean an tí = woman of the house [pronounced _ban-on-tee_] 

Banatee could easily be an anglicised rendition of "bean an tí", particularly from the accent of those that speak Irish with a Connemara accent [the second "n" from "an" is elided almost to the point of not being heard at all].


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## jamesosullivan

In Ireland when saying this it wouldn't be anglicised. I've never seen it written like that before.


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