Lost In Translation
...amusingly-translated Welsh signs
Wales is a bi-lingual country; road signs appear in Welsh and English. The translations usually make sense but anything involving the council can go wrong. Here are some signs that absurdly went wrong...
1: Cyclists get inflamed bladders
Instead
of being told to dismount, Welsh-speaking cyclists were told that
they had problems with an 'inflamed bladder' by a temporary
bilingual road sign between Cardiff and Penarth. The translation
makes no sense. Perhaps the translator mixed cyclists with cystitis
and came up with "Overthrowing cystitis".
'Llid y bledren' means inflammation of the bladder, and 'dymchwelyd' means overthrow, demolish or collapse. The problem seems to be that there is no Welsh word for 'dismount'. Perhaps a better translation might have been 'Dim beicio' which means 'No cycling'.
2: It's a one-way street
English
pedestrians in Cardiff were told to "Look Right" but Welsh
pedestrians were told to "Look Left".
3: Sheer madness!
This
RSPB temporary sign to an event about shearwater birds,
unfortunately translates into Welsh as 'Cneifio Gwallof' - "Mad
Sheep Shearing".
4: The lights are on, but there's no-one in
This
sign in Swansea told Welsh-speaking lorry drivers that "I
am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be
translated".
An e-mail sent by the Council to its translations department asking for "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only" to be translated into Welsh triggered the automated email response "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated". Unfortunately, the English-speaking official thought the automated e-mail was the actual translation, so went ahead and had it printed on the road sign.
5: Ghost image
This
Welsh translation became "Wines and Ghosts".
6: Great offer for Welsh speakers at Asda
This
sign at Asda in Cwmbran was translated as 'Alcohol am dimm ',
which means "Free alcohol" instead of
'di-alcohol' for 'Alcohol Free'.
7: Meanwhile there's no record at Aldi
Near
the Aldi supermarket in Llandudno this mistake was made translating
'No Entry '. While 'Dim Cofnod' does mean 'no entry', it actually
refers to book-keeping not traffic. 'Cofnod' is a list in a
document.
8: What bridge?
This
road sign with a small typo appeared on a lane between Ammanford and
Pontadawe in South Wales. Instead of saying "Hidden Dip" the
Welsh translation reads "Hidden Bridge". It
should have read "Pant Cudd" not "Pont
Cudd" - 'pont' being 'bridge' and 'pant' being 'hollow'.
'Cudd' is 'hidden'.
9: No snooping now!
This
"Business open as usual" sign became "Snooping
closed as usual" when translated into Welsh - which I
suppose is good news!
10: Warning: blasted workers
This
temporary sign read "Rhybudd: Gweithwyr yn ffrwydro" in
Welsh but actually translates as "Warning: Workers are
exploding" not the intended "Warning: Blasting in
progress".
At least they got "Rhybudd" translated as "Warning" correct.
11: Ban sports coaches
Sometimes
they nearly get it right. In Newport a "No access to coaches"
sign was translated as "Dim mynediad ar gyfer Hyfforddwyr",
which would be correct if it were not for the fact that they used
the word 'coaches' in the sporting context rather than
referring to vehicles.
Note: the examples above tend to start in English with the Welsh translation second. Most road signs are now in Welsh first and English second.
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