The Enid Blyton Society

I'm still not actually learning Welsh, but something put me in mind of funny mistranslations again this afternoon and I came across these: Lost in Translation... amusingly-translated Welsh signs

(Some of them I've seen before — the "not in the office" road sign is by now legendary — but some I hadn't... number 3, 5, 7 and especially 8 had me absolutely cracking up. )

Anita Bensoussane wrote:I just watched that clip with the subtitles on. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch came out as "plan by the cross-linking to go get cleaned Robert Francis to do go go go"!

Meanwhile, out of interest, I just rewatched it to see if the subtitle function has become any more fluent in Welsh over the past year or so. It now comes out as "clan biota pushed winger to GoGet Oakland Robert Lanza Sileo go go go".

Why don't they just get a Welsh speaker to do the translating?!

My exact thought!

Yeah, you'd think they would. I can understand ending up with "Chinglish" and so on where someone attempts to translate a sign into English in a country or region where there aren't many fluent English speakers. But you'd think in Wales they might be able to find at least a few fluent Welsh speakers...

It's interesting to see that Gaelic obviously didn't have a word for bridge or that it was replaced or very similar to the Latin "pons, pontis" in Welsh.

Yes - quite a few Latin words were incorporated into Brittonic during the time of Roman rule. This short article explains things concisely and well:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/site ... mans.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A very interesting article. Thanks for posting the link, Anita.

Those are brilliant Courtenay! I've got a stitch in my side laughing at them, particularly the sheep shearers and exploding workers!!

IceMaiden wrote:I've got a stitch in my side laughing at them, particularly the sheep shearers and exploding workers!!

I'm reminding myself to look out for them when I next go for a holiday in Wales!!

Incredible signs. I wonder what a Welsh court of law would have made with the keep right/left road sign.

I have started learning German, and the study, the learning, and this language are all so amazing. I will nevr regret this choice of beginning to learn German, because it is definitely worth it. And I think I am doing quite well so far! One of the main reasons I started learning German was because I simply love German literature and German culture. I can't wait to read Hesse, Walser, Goethe, and so many others excellent writers in their native language...

Nadolig Llawen to you too, Floragord! (I've been able to say that myself recently to a few Welsh speakers I know, too. I'm also still learning Cornish, in which Happy Christmas is almost identical — Nadelik Lowen.)

Same goes with Arabic and Hebrew. I have been learning Arabic and it has struck me how those two languages sound very similar. Both languages have layer upon layer of meanings i.e. double meanings. So reading them in context is very important hence the most difficult languages to translate to other languages because of their nature!