For fun, I am currently tr*nsl*t*ng the names of Harry Potter books into Gaelic. For the third book, Prisoner of Azkaban, my inclination as a student was to try to put Azkaban in the genitive. I came up with Harry Potter agus am Prìosanach an Azkabain. However, when I was looking up diphthongs on Akerbeltz to figure out how you would pronounce that, I saw that it's not really normal for ai to come before a single n in Gaelic. So then I thought, 'Maybe it's a different type of genitive ending, such as Azkabana, like pìob/pìoba? Or maybe it would stay the same, like baile?' It just seemed like guesswork, so I'm wondering if this is more than a Gaelic speaker or writer would do. (I am probably going to switch it to "anns an Azkaban" or "anns an t-Azkaban". The dilemma continues in assigning gender...) This question applies to any made-up word, whether it's Hogwarts, Tatooine, or Klingon. Is there an accepted length to which you go to adapt a made-up word into Gaelic rules, or do you just leave it alone?
My question also extends to foreign names and places. For example, would the vocative of 'Beethoven' be 'a Bheetoven'? 'Matsuo' to 'a Mhatsuo'? Sometimes, like with Azkaban, it seems unnecessary, but with letters that lenite in Gaelic words, I'm wondering if it sounds unnatural in Gaelic to keep their original pronunciations. (For example, to you go 'do Shan Francisco' or 'do San Francisco'?)
Tapadh leibh!
