The Welsh “translation” reads This is a Wank Away Zone!
Very funny on first seeing it!
But reflect a bit!
How would you feel if an English Language road sign was erected on your road, outside your children's school or on the way to your workplace declaring it to be a Wank-Away Zone?
I would suspect that most people, who saw such a sign, would be angry, very angry.
How would you feel if a pervert used such a sign to justify masturbating outside a school and got away with it, because of what the sign says?
This sign complies with the current Welsh Language Act, it complies with voluntary codes on use of the language in the private sector and is, therefore, a practical example of why a new and comprehensive Welsh Language Act is desperately needed!
The sign is totally correct.
ReplyDeleteThe Welsh Academy Dictionary gives "halio" as the first choice for "tow" and "llwybr halio" as the term for "towpath".
It does show a lack of sensitivity to the way language is used today but it is not wrong at all.
Ond Siân, ffindia di un person i mi sy'n defnyddio 'halio' am tow! Tynnu byddai pawb yn defnyddio am tow.
ReplyDeleteFfeindia di berson sy'n defnyddio 'ymaith' mewn sgwrs bob dydd hefyd?!? I ffwrdd neu bant byddai pawb yn defnyddio.
Does dim ots gyda fi beth mae'n dweud yn y geiriadur, rhywbeth i'r academyddion yw hwna, byddai NEB yn darllen hwna fel Tow Away Zone. Rhywbeth fel 'Ardal Tynnu i ffwrdd' byddai ore. pam fod rhaid cyfieithu pethau yn llythrennol? Blydi cyfieithwyr! Dim synnwyr cyffredin!
As the person who took the photograph. I first of all have to say that Sian is technically correct about the translation BUT surely there is a serious problem here with the fluency of the person who translated the sign. Pictures of these signs, and there are several of the signs along the Kingsway a large main road in the ciry centre, have been circulating around the Welsh speaking community in Swansea for months. You'll find one on the local Welsh Language Society web site with a caption which translates as "There is a welcome to the city's perverts here".
ReplyDeleteI am sure that people will have complained about them.
People's reaction is always the same they laugh. Some them go on to moan about the standard of translation of signs. Other local examples are Ramp translated as "steel erection","Traffic Jam and Marmalade" being sold in a shop and a sign that says "Pedestrian zone. No vehicles in English and "Pedestrian Zone. No Pedestrians" in Welsh.
I have to agree that a proper language act would help stop these awful signs.
It is one of several dozen that I saw over a two day period that have something wrong with them.
What makes this sign worse is that the phone number on it actually belongs to the local police who are presumably responsible for it.
I have a friend who went into the local police station waving her wedding ring because the word used for "ring for attention" was the wrong kind if "ring".
Not a bad story for Llais y Sais. Do you think they'd use it ?k
ReplyDelete@ Post 2
ReplyDeleteAlwyn has a welsh medium blog for ignoramuses like you. Show respect and comment in the language of the article or not at all.
You'd be well pissed off if I came on MaesE and insisted on commenting in English.
PS
I am fluent Welsh
"pam fod rhaid cyfieithu pethau yn llythrennol? Blydi cyfieithwyr! Dim synnwyr cyffredin!"
ReplyDeleteY gwir a ddywedwyd!
It asks above why do translators have to literally translate everythin. They don't have any common sense at all. I agree.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete@ Post 2
Alwyn has a welsh medium blog for ignoramuses like you. Show respect and comment in the language of the article or not at all.
You'd be well pissed off if I came on MaesE and insisted on commenting in English.
I am grateful to you for volunteering to moderate my blog, but thanks but no thanks. I think that I can manage on my own.
There are French, Spanish and Portuguese comments on this blog, as well as a number of previous Welsh comments.
Comments in all languages are welcome here, as long as they are related to the post!
Whatever. My point was not in moderating the ignorant prat but in pointing out his ignorance.
ReplyDeleteI see he is no alone.
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge. It appears that your problem with the Welsh language comment is based on your lack of knowledge of the Welsh language. So the ignorant one is you, not the poster.
ReplyDeleteIf you didn't understand the comment made by anon 12:21, don't you think that it might have been a tad less "ignorant" to ask me nicely to provide a translation, rather than making belligerent anti-Welsh comments?
Which part of 'I am fluent Welsh' do you need a hand with?
ReplyDeleteMy comments were not anti Welsh but pro good manners
Bigotry and piss poor manners not only clearly exist here on this blog but are quite obviously to be encouraged.
Cue the, if you don't like it don't read it,reply.
But, anonymous, "halio" is used in all sorts of contexts for "pull" or "drag".
ReplyDelete"Roedd Glyn yn halio rhyw sach ar ei ôl"
"Paid halio'r babi 'na"
You can't stop using a perfectly good word just because it has another, 'smutty' meaning.
I've just read a piece regarding a "steelwork erection" - do we need an English language act to ban such use of that word as well?
Anon. You say you're fluent but the only rudness in the post was a jovial put down of translaters who frankly do tend to be over literal linguistically at the cost of effective communication.
ReplyDeletePs it is not bad mannered or bigotted to use your ownlanguage in a public space.
ReplyDelete