Trelawnyd used to be a predominantly Welsh speaking village, despite it's proximity to the English border.
Nowadays only a small percentage of the village speak Welsh as a first language, although this figure is noticeably higher in villagers located further inland
By law, any official notice or sign has to be written in English AND Welsh, which can provide difficulties for the size of signage and the like.
The following are examples of this bisexuality (?) around Trelawnyd!
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| Speaks for itself! |
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| Not a warning sign relating to my poultry |
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| Go on, try saying that one |
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| For Welsh speaking dogs |
Spanish and English is starting to appear together on some of the product labels here, and I personally find it a bit distracting, as I would on the signs--Which is why it's easier for me to understand the pictures! :-) Do you speak Welsh John?
ReplyDeleteNo wonder the Welsh don't mind having England as a central Government for funding - their road signage costs twice as much as everyone else's.
ReplyDeleteIn Michigan everything has pictures only. And a lot of other places have English/Spanish. I recently went to Alabama and they spell out everything in English only. and they have signs for everything. "Dog walk, this way","Dogs must be on leash","Pick up after your dog", " No dogs allowed inside", Keep off the grass", "handicaped parking this way","handicaped parking between these signs","this is for handicaped only",etc...
ReplyDeleteI came around a corner and there were so many signs that I couldn't find what I was looking for. Information overload!
I always enjoy seeing signs from other places. Thanks.
Beth a 'n fawr bostio Ioan
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post John
kim
ReplyDeleteI learnt it at school until the age of 13 as all kids did..... I couldn't really get by now!
tom
true.. but then again all you English gits drink our water!!!!!
A oes unrhyw un o'ch anifeiliaid yn siarad Cymraeg?
ReplyDeleteNotwithstanding Tom's concerns regarding the cost, I do enjoy seeing and reading bilingual signage. Likewise in Cornwall.
Nx
PS. Via Google translate (blame them if it doesn't make sense). Oh, and there are no expletives in there, either, just in case some of you have been convinced that I am a total potty-mouth (as they say here). Nx
Nige
ReplyDeleteonly one can speak welsh!! my last remaining welsh magpie duck
Welcome to life in bilingual Canada. Costs us a bloomin' fortune to have everything written in two languages.
ReplyDeleteJAckie is right. Canada has bilingual cereal boxes too. A marketers nightmare.
ReplyDeleteIn Quebec however, you cross the little line in your car and EVERYTHING is in French only.
Is there a sign somewhere in the village that says 'No Welsh Spoken Here'?
ReplyDeleteAll product labelling in Canada is bilingual...thus, the same size label and teeny tiny print...everyone here carries a magnifying glass. Signs..so far in our area of Ontario are English and pictures only.
ReplyDeleteOh, the billingual nightmare!
ReplyDeleteJane x
Same thing in Brussels....Flemish and French....
ReplyDeleteWe have grown very accustomed to this in Canada with French and English on everything. I don't think of the cost at all....how can you put a value on the preservation of a culture?
ReplyDeleteI am glad however that I have French to translate and NOT Welsh!!! yeow!
Here there signs in Arabic, English and Hebrew i think they should have them in Russian as well. there are a few signs on this post
ReplyDeletehttp://cathyisathome.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-11-24T18:45:00%2B02:00&max-results=2
The product labels here in Florida pretty much all have English and Spanish...so far street signs are all in English.
ReplyDeleteLike your sign photos...it's Wales isn't it...so I suppose it's odd that English is on the signs!
Years ago we used to stay regularly at the village of Verwig in Cargidanshire - the old man there spoke only Welsh and had very few words of English. Is it still taught alongside English in schools John?
ReplyDeleteI think my Elsie the Welshie must speak Welsh because she doesn't understand 'NO!' in English.
ReplyDeleteEverything here in Iowa is English. I love your blog.. You have so much there to entertain you... I just read about the cat bringing in the mouse. Oh how I laughed.. You are on an adventure everyday with all your animals..
ReplyDeleteI have a couple friends who are from Wales and I do enjoy hearing from them from time to time. I met them at the World's Ploughing Matches in Ireland..
Have a blessed day~! ta ta for now from Iowa:)
I used to love seeing these signs when I visited my mum & try to pronounce the words !
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in Mallorca some of the very resorts popular with Germans had signs in... German !
I think it's great. The same in NZ with Maori/English and they are trying to get some Noongar/English dual naming in my town.
ReplyDeleteGood for the Welsh, they get their money's worth out of consonants that seldom get used elsewhere. Here in California we're doing such a terrible job of teaching anyone to read, signs will soon be obsolete.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't realised you were native Welsh John. It's there in my genes back in medieval Radnorshire, but speak it? I suspect the speaking of it is easier than the spelling makes it look.
ReplyDeleteAs Sarah Toa says, NZ is a bilingual country, though road and general public signs are't usually in two languages. All official documentation is, but because some of the Maori words used are transliterations from English they have surprising effect - Inland Revenue (tax dept) is Te Tari Taake!
Dw i ddim yn siarad Cymraeg yn dda ond dw i eisiau siarad Cymraeg.
ReplyDeleteI'm useless at writing it though!
We only speak 'Strayl-yan' - we pissed off English as a language around about the same time the catholics dropped latin in schools and mass. The e-age has driven the nail into the grammar coffin.
ReplyDeleteText from daughter, aged 35 -
"C'mun down F 2CU&M. Ken stay F&S nites. jestme. K"
Admit it - Welsh is an ugly useless language. Speak French. You'll all feel beautiful...
ReplyDeleteEven the Americans among you...
ReplyDeletemerde
ReplyDeleteI doubt many Americans would even know what that means...
ReplyDeleteWe don't have anything like that here, so to me it seems charming.
ReplyDeleteI speak French every day. Why don't I feel 'beautiful'?
ReplyDelete@jim, a good comment.
ReplyDeleteThe cost can be alleviated, as it is in many places, especially Gwynedd...it would be "ffordd cwm road" no problem! Or even just Ffordd cwm!!!
Diversity gives riches, may every language and culture thrive.
Da bo'ch, John!!
Dim Baeddu John! I bet that's what they said during your extremely short career as a footballer.
ReplyDeleteboom boom
ReplyDeleteI'd love to learn Welsh. I took a class in Irish Gaelic and had a hard time thinking in it becuase it lacks the verb, "to have."
ReplyDeleteAs with any language that uses the same alphabet English does, if you understand the phonetics, you can learn to pronounce. English is hard because it's not always written phonetically, and i know that Celtic languages had their own alphabet at one point,but still.
I see some French/English here on some packaging as well as Spanish/English. Signs on the interstate show things in miles and km given our proximity to Canada, although i still really don't think in Metric very well. For km, i double the number and subtract a bit for a mileage approximation.
megan