According to the council website, only one-ninth of the city’s population speaks Welsh. Nevertheless, official road signs throughout Wales have to be bilingual, and so the council’s in-house translation service was asked for a Welsh rendering of “No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only”. Back came the prompt reply, “Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i’w gyfieithu.”
These words were duly added to the sign, underneath the English words. Unfortunately, the council signwriters were clearly not members of the city’s small Welsh-speaking minority, because what those words actually mean is, “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.”
After the few local Welsh-speakers had finished laughing, the council replaced the sign with one bearing more appropriate Welsh words. (“Dim mynediad i gerbydau trwm. Safle preswyl yn unig,” if you must know.)
