A Swansea council official requested an online Welsh translation of a street sign which excluded lorries from a small road but what he received was an email reply in Welsh which stated that the language translator was away. Unfortunately, the official, not fluent in Welsh himself, mistook this for the sign’s translation and gave the green light for it to be printed. All road signs in Wales are translated from English into Welsh and vice versa, but often the Welsh translations are prepared by individuals who no understanding of the native Welsh terminology.
Managing Editor of a Welsh language based publication, Dylan Iorwerth, who is fluent in the language himself said, “When they’re proofing signs, they should really use someone who speaks Welsh”. Authorities only realised the mistake when it was highlighted by residents who speak Welsh and emails of the mistaken Welsh translation went around the internet. What was supposed to read, “No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only”, in Welsh rather stood in broad daylight as, “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated”.
Iorwerth from Golwg magazine said, “(The pictures) are circulating among Welsh speakers because, unfortunately, it’s all too common that things are not just badly translated, but are put together by people who have no idea about the language”. He added, “It’s good to see people trying to translate (Welsh) but they should really ask for expert help”.Swansea councils response was simply that their attention had been drawn to the mistranslation of a sign. Welsh became mandatory for all school children in the country in the early 90’s after a broad revitalization of the language. It is blatantly obvious though that while the signs are all too evident for Welsh speaking subjects, many residents are not at all familiar with the language.
In another concerning incident, a sign told English pedestrians to “Look right” when in fact it was supposed to read “Look Left”. Such mistranslations have potentially serious outcomes and legal implications.Legal translations should be done with due care by qualified and responsible legal translation agency. Londons’ BBC correspondent said that this is not the first Welsh translation sign mishap: it is just the most recent in a series of similar incidents.