http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/11/w ... -sign.html
Welsh Road Sign Features Email Auto-Reply Instead of Correct Translation
What happens when people place too much trust in technology? Sometimes, the result is dangerous (sheep-like belief in GPS, for example). Other times, the layers of hilarity are startling. Take this story, a tale of bureaucracy and institutionalized ignorance from Wales.
Welsh road signs are posted in two languages, English and Welsh (due to budget contraints, the Welsh signs are printed with almost no vowels). The trouble is, Welsh isn't so widely spoken that just any local government minion can dash off a translation. When the Swansea council needed a translation of "No entry for heavy goods vehicles", somebody sent it off to the translator and, seemingly, forwarded the reply directly to the signage company.
The problem? The translator was on vacation, and his email was set to auto-reply. Instead of the the featuring the correct legend, the Welsh part of the road sign reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated".
The result can be seen above.
Britons have a strange relationship with their road signs. Instead of shooting at them or smacking them off the pole with a baseball bat, American-style, the Brits love their signage. My parents live near the decrepit seaside town of Westward Ho! -- the only English town with an exclamation mark in its name. Recently, the signs were renewed without the punctuation. It took roughly five minutes for a pitchfork wielding lynch mob to descend on the local council buildings. The sign was quickly fixed.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... _page.html
Road sign leaves Welsh-speakers bewildered
Welsh-speaking cyclists have been left baffled - and possibly concerned for their health - after a bizarre translation mix-up.
For instead of a road sign telling them to dismount, the Welsh translation informs them that 'bladder disease has returned'.
The temporary sign, placed in front of the roadworks at Barons Court roundabout between Penarth and Cardiff, correctly says 'cyclists dismount' in English, but says 'llid y bledren dymchwelyd' in Welsh.
Owain Sgiv, an officer for the Welsh language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, explained: 'Roughly translated, llid y bledren dymchwelyd means bladder disease has returned.
'But I have to stress that the order in which the words have been placed means the sentence makes no sense whatsoever.
'It certainly does not mean anything like cyclists dismount.'
'Cyclists dismount is an awkward sentence to translate as there is no Welsh word for dismount,' he added.
'But the correct translation would be something like dim beicio, which means literally no cycling, or man disgyn i feicwyr, which means fall-off area for cyclists.
Aran Jones, of Welsh Language group Cymuned, was equally baffled - although not for the first time.
He said: 'Llid y bledren means inflammation of the bladder.
'This sentence structure makes no sense, but dymchwelyd means return.
'This is a real peach. Road signs are mistranslated on an enormously regular basis, usually because people use online translators.
'But we don't often get them quite as insane as this.'
The sign was placed there by the Vale of Glamorgan Council highways department who have admitted that they made a mistake.
A council spokesman said: 'It does appear that an error has occurred during the translation process, a matter which is being investigated.
'In the meantime, amended signs are being produced and should be replaced as soon as possible.'
These Welsh are crazy!
