Thursday, September 07, 2006

Bilingual Welsh sign stumps Scots

A sign on a Aberdeenshire building site left local people mystified because it was written in Welsh as well as English.

Building company David McLean, whose HQ is on Deeside, north Wales, put up the notice apologising for inconvenience during the work in the Bridge of Don.

The top half of the sign read: "Ymddirheurwn am unrhyw anghyfleustra a achosir yn ystod gwaith adnewyddu" - although for the benefit of non-Welsh speakers, it also included the English translation: "We apologise for any inconvenience caused during refurbishment works".

1 comment:

Jodie said...

Right... I think I'd just about understand if the sign had been in Scottish Gaelic but even that would be a bit odd.

I think all signs in Wales have to be in both Welsh and English though, so this was probably just a sign repurposed from a building site in Wales. I can't imagine the company paying out for a translation agency to do the sign otherwise. Particularly if the building site wasn't actually in Wales.