Fòram na Gàidhlig

Please could you tell me how the name Thorfinn would be said in gaidhlig?

I'm worried it would come out horfin?

How would you spell it in gaidhlig to get the sound Thor as in the norse god, and Finn as in short for finnley?

Moran Taing

p.s. If it is pronouced in a weird way, what gaidhlig names could I uses as a middle name that he can be called at school? any sujestions for favorites?


Beanie

the th in thor cannot be reproduced at the start of a word in gaelic

Thank you :)So if it was being read in gaidhlig, how would it sound?

I'm not aware of any attestations to Norse theology in Scottish Gaelic -- AFAIK the Norse basically converted en masse round about the first invasions.

Any attempt to render it into Gaelic would get confusing, as your most likely candidate would be "Toirfionn", which would essentially be the same as "Torphin", a suburb of Edinburgh, which has nothing to do with Thor.....

("horfinn" is unlikely, as older words tended to render Norse TH as D or T.)

Yes there is. Inbhir Theòrsa (Thurso) - at least to some mostly serious etymologists is derived from Thor. Aaaanyway...

Old Gaelic did have /θ/ and /ð/ but developed those into /h/ and /ɣ/.

It all depends on how "Gaelic" you want to be. Historically all words borrowed into Gaelic with and offending fricative (th, h, v, wh, j...) sound (offending in the sense that Gaelic dislikes them at the start of a word) were turned into their nearest de-lenited counterparts (cf Norse hallur > talla, vervain > bearbhain...).

Which in the case of your name would mean Thorfinn > Torfinn. And if you want to complete the process, adjust the rf group to > Toirfinn pronounced /tɔrfɪNʲ/.