Monument ([info]marnanel) wrote,
@ 2008-10-31 12:15:00
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Entry tags:welsh

I saw a news report this morning about a game against "Gwlad y Basg". Now Pasg means Easter, and "Land of the Easter" *would* be "Gwlad y Basg" if Pasg was feminine, but it isn't (but I couldn't remember). So I thought, what, Easter Island? But Basg == Basque. Ha.


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One for t3h lolz for you
[info]emperor
2008-10-31 05:09 pm UTC (link)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7702913.stm

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Re: One for t3h lolz for you
[info]curig
2008-10-31 05:19 pm UTC (link)
That is hysterical!

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Re: One for t3h lolz for you
[info]marnanel
2008-10-31 05:29 pm UTC (link)
I stared at that sign for quite a while with my mouth open. That really is a new level of stupidity, even for Scymraeg.

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Re: One for t3h lolz for you
[info]trochee
2008-10-31 05:33 pm UTC (link)
In the same mall as translate server error.

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Re: One for t3h lolz for you
[info]shadowphiar
2008-10-31 07:48 pm UTC (link)
"It's good to see people trying to translate, but they should really ask for expert help."

Is that not exactly what they were doing?

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Re: One for t3h lolz for you
[info]pling
2008-10-31 09:47 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, while I found it amusing, I did think the story was a little unfair - having one's out of office message in the language people are asking you to translate things into seems foolish, as if they were going to understand it, they probably wouldn't've emailed you ...

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Re: One for t3h lolz for you
[info]marnanel
2008-10-31 09:53 pm UTC (link)
The *real* solution would be to have everyone using a standard email header to show that an email was an auto-reply, or a bounce, or a real email. But we don't have one. :(

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Re: One for t3h lolz for you
[info]curig
2008-10-31 11:41 pm UTC (link)
I don't know, obviously, but often the culture in those organisations is that Welsh is put ahead of English. It wouldn't surprise me if the out-of-office message was bilingual Welsh then English and the sign people didn't actually scroll down but just assumed that the Welsh text was the translation.

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Re: One for t3h lolz for you
[info]yrieithydd
2008-11-01 03:01 pm UTC (link)
Indeed. My out-of-office will have Welsh above English. It also has a header which makes it clear. Some people do put 'This is a bilingual message, English follows Welsh' in their messages but I tend not to bother especially for short messages.

Also, an out-of-office appears back very quickly and I'd expect a message containing a translation to have some sort of 'here's what you wanted' message attached. I sometimes get very short messages to translate and that's what I do.

I suppose it's unfortunate that the English and Welsh both have two sentences so the number of full stops wasn't a clue that it was not the message. But even so words like swyddfa and cyfieithu are ones which I might expect people to recognise from signs and messages around bilingual workplaces.

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Re: One for t3h lolz for you
[info]marnanel
2008-11-01 03:50 pm UTC (link)
But even so words like swyddfa and cyfieithu are ones which I might expect people to recognise from signs and messages around bilingual workplaces.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But then I see signs like this one which make me think that non-Welsh speakers just perceive Welsh as so much line noise and don't even bother taking it in at all (what language can admit a word like "CRBYD?")

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Re: One for t3h lolz for you
[info]yrieithydd
2008-11-01 05:23 pm UTC (link)
But everyone knows Welsh doesn't have vowels!

It's strange, people in England who go to Wales often pick up words like Araf and Ysgol from the road and signs but Cymry Di-gymraeg* don't bother to take in words off signs.

*Non Welsh speaking Welsh people

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