# Irish: Colm Tóibín



## Tabac

I know very little about any of the Gaelic languages, so I have a question about what I see on the cover of a book. I'm reading _The Master_, a fictionalized biography of Henry James, by Colm Tóibín. I'd like to know how to pronounce the author's name. Since I've never noticed diacritical marks on any Irish words I've seen in print, I'd also appreciate a brief lesson in what these marks indicate to those who speak the language.

Does the author's name "mean" anything?

Thanks so much for any information you can give me.

P.S. I'm enjoying the book, although I am quite unfamiliar with Henry James, having read only _The Turn of the Screw. _


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## utopia

I'd say it should be - Colum Tobin (o as in english and n at the end as spanish n in compania).



for any other references you can post at: daltai . com



(this site doesnt let me put a whole address, so it's seperated a little bit)


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## celestialgrrl

Good evening Tobac...

how you pronounce Colm Tóibín...it's like this:

'Colm' is like column without the 'u'...then 'Tóibín' is like 'toe-bean' with more emphasis on the bean...

regards...


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## elpoderoso

Colm is derived from Columba (as in St. Columba).


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## Outsider

utopia said:


> I'd say it should be - Colum Tobin (o as in english and n at the end as spanish *ñ* in compa*ñí*a).


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## jamesosullivan

The accents are very important to Irish-just as much a part of the word as they are in french. They lengthen the vowel sound.

á=awe (roughly)
é=hay without the h
í= 'ee'
ó=mow without the m and the o
ú=moo without the m

They are called 'fathers'
I actually don't know the correct way to write that-I've only come across it spoken.
It's pronounced fah-thu(s) or fa-dah(s) considering the lack of a hibernal english 'th' sound


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## jamesosullivan

and as far as i know Colm Tóibín doesn't mean anything.
Colm is a common Irish name
'-ín' can signifie a smaller version of the noun ( eg. neid=nest, neidín = little nest)
i don't recognise tóib though....


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## Outsider

jamesosullivan said:


> They are called 'fathers'
> I actually don't know the correct way to write that-I've only come across it spoken.
> It's pronounced fah-thu(s) or fa-dah(s) considering the lack of a hibernal english 'th' sound


_Fada_ (singular; I'm not sure about the plural).


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## jamesosullivan

Thanks!


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## jamesosullivan

The plural could be fadaí or fadatha or a multitude of other forms. You'd need a native Irish speaker for that one I think


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## Amadán

OP, sound is as said above, Column Toe-Bean as spoken by an English speaker.  Back-to-back consonants joining syllables can get extra vowel sounds inferred between them.  Another example would be "Airgead" ("money") - ar[e]gad, where the [e] is inferred. It's shorter than a full written vowel, of course.  It's just there to keep the bounce!

Regarding the stroke above the vowels, the effect they have is to make the vowel long ("long" being "fada" in Irish) and they are often incorrectly called this but the correct name is "síneadh fada", plural "sínte fada" (or "síntí fada" if you believe Ó Dómhnaill). "Síneadh fada" translates to English as "length mark" or "length indication".


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