Welsh Translation Cock-up Blamed on e-mail

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The dangers of non-speakers of a language using translations supplied by third parties is shown by this road-sign erected in Wales (where bilingual road signs are compulsory).

I hope this gives a giggle or two to our Welsh ladies–and everyone else.

cock-up.jpg

For the full story see:— http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7702913.stm

Gabi

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Translations can be fun

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erin's picture

Along the freeway in LA county there are big yellow boxes containing emergency phones that automatically call a tow truck dispatch operator. A sign on the box says: "Vandalism against emergency services boxes will cause an alarm to ring in the station." In Spanish it says. "Do not molest the yellow boxes. The police know where you live." :) The English one sounds like it was written by a bureaucrat, the Spanish one as if it were written by a street kid. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Not really but ...

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... Welsh speakers insist on it. I can understand it and have some sympathy for their position. Wales really is a different country from England and there is a strong independence movement which can be violent in a small minority of cases. Being English in the UK can be unpopular though it's generally not a problem. I get the feeling that in the medium to long term (10 to 20 years) the UK will no longer exist as an entity, as Wales, Scotland and eventually Ulster become independent.

Someone was taking the piss in this instance and it's a lot funnier than other things that happened over here in the last week or so and caused a big fuss at the BBC.

Geoff

Independence movements

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We have those in the US also. One that has been in the news lately is the one in Alaska. They are made up of barking lunatics. People don't usually pay them much attention unless they break the law.

Mr. Ram

They're in power in the UK.

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Both Scotland and Wales are run by The Nationalist parties as part of the UK and there's very strong Irish Republican Party in Ulster which was VERY violent until just a short time ago. It really is quite possible, even probable, that the UK will become broken into its constituent parts ultimately. So they're a force to be reckoned with.

As we'll all remain as part of the EU I don't think it matters all that much if that's what the citizens of those countries want.

Geoff

Alaska?

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Forget Alaska, look at Texas. They have always acted like they are their own country. And soon, might as well be.

Re: Welsh Translation

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Greetings

Not sure how that should be said in Welsh and I do not have a translation service available.

English is spoken and understood by the majority of people in Wales, however, there is an influential number who wish to ensure that the Welsh language does not disappear.

There are other languages which have existed within the British Isles, these include the Celtic languages Irish, Gaelic and Cornish. Incidentally Welsh is also used in Patagonia, Argentina.

Brian

Translation

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There is nothing like avoiding boring work so here's a translation of the English:-

Dim mynediad i foduron llwythau trymion.
Ardal breswyl yn unig

So if the council had only phoned me I could have spared them some embarassment.

On the wider topic of bilingual road signs. It is a legal requirement for public bodies to have bilingual signs, but sadly not a legal requirement to ensure that the signs are accurate.

Up until 100 years ago Welsh was the majority language, but there were no legal rights to use it or have education through its medium until the late 60's. Even today with a fifth of the population still speaking the language it still doesn't have equal legal status with English in Wales. In the meantime, as in other parts of the world, young people are turning away from the language of their communities to English.

Of course the context of this is the process of the loss of minority languages all over the world. Each one a unique treasure store of the human experience.

California, New Guinea and the Black Sea

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erin's picture

The three areas mentioned above at one time easily contained most of the world's languages. Add in a similar area in Central Africa and the rest of the world could be considered postscript barbarians. Except -- most of the languages that once existed in California and around the Black Sea are gone. Central African tongues are dwindling rapidly and New Guinea is headed in the same direction. Even so, with the disappearance of other languages elsewhere, the Dragon Isle has a significant fraction of the world's surviving tongues, more than a thousand.

Myself, I'm part Cherokee but hardly know a word of the language. It's not dead but it's difficult to learn and even my grandmother did not speak it as an adult. My great grandmother, a full blood Cherokee, spoke it, fluent English and at least enough Muskegee (another, unrelated, Indian language) to give my father a name in that tongue.

I speak native English, poor Spanish, bad Vietnamese, and smatterings of Swedish, French, German, Italian, Esperanto, Yiddish and Japanese. None of those are in danger of dying out. I can recognize words in a dozen or more other languages. Languages fascinate me, probably how I wandered so easily into programming, too.

If you don't know another language, it's never too late to learn. I only took up French, semi-seriously, last year. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

I found it funny

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that towards the bottom of the article it mentions a sign from 2006 that was for cyclist between Cardiff and Penarth and warned they had an "inflamed bladder". Lol Amy----"May your pen never run out of ink and your brain out of ideas"

Similar sign

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erin's picture

I once saw a similar sign in NatGeo, apparently from New Guinea. At a stop sign, an English language sign had been posted explaining the perhaps unfamiliar red octagon. It said "All vehicles must stop."

Underneath that in Tok Pisin, it said something like: "Oll ka go long rot muss stop." :) Probably a good translaton and it's perfectly understandable to an English speaker if read aloud.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

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