Welsh road signs ,Does anyone use the Welsh language

ajuk

Yes but like I said polly that's not the purpose of road signs, they are there to convey a nationalist motivated political statement, and unlike mountainofdebt I'm happy for the welsh to speak their own language if they want to.

macman

So when you take your driving test in Wales, do you get an option to do it in English or Welsh?

pollypenny

ajuk wrote: »

Yes but like I said polly that's not the purpose of road signs, they are there to convey a nationalist motivated political statement, and unlike mountainofdebt I'm happy for the welsh to speak their own language if they want to.

No, the signs are in Welsh so that those for whom Welsh is their first language can use it.

BTW: Welsh is not my first language, but it is for about a third of the population in my town.

spugzbunny

I lived in North Wales for 4 years. In my experience most of the people who lived their spoke welsh as thier first language. I imagine the people here saying that welsh is a dead language are the same people who say 'they only start speaking welsh when an english person comes in the room'.

Language is a beautiful thing and it should be kep alive. Why would we want to lose a language?

I also used to work in a childrens theme park and I met many people who spoke only welsh. After 4 years in wales i learnt to follow a conversation in welsh and I could speak some. I can't now as i've been away from it for so long. If i had the spare time I'd like to learn welsh properly as I think it's great! Especially in the Bangor twang!

Talking of people confusing the welsh words for things - when I went to Uni you could always tell a new fresher as they'd say they lived on the fridoidydoidy site. Ffriddoedd site. I love it - welcome to wales - have some vowels!

ajuk

If I were to concede that there might be a small minority of Welsh speakers who struggle to read English signs when the signs are quite long and wordy, something which I think is dubious, I still doubt any of those people will struggle with signs that say 'slow' or 'stop'.

pavlovs_dog

ajuk wrote: »

and unlike mountainofdebt I'm happy for the welsh to speak their own language if they want to.

but not to read it in public apparently :cool:

bilingual roadsides have got nothing to do with promoting any political agenda. They become political when too little respect is paid to the language by rent-a-dictionary translators who inevitably make elementary mistakes resulting in a Welsh sign that bears little relation to the instructions it was supposed to give.

a significant proportion of the German population speak English, yet I don't see you telling them they should be replacing 'halt' with 'stop' signs simply because most of them would understand it.

ajuk

Yes they can read it if they want to, with road signs its vital that they remain as clear and uncluttered as possible.

Eh? No because in Germany don't literally all speak English, with over 80% as a first language. :undecided

There's probably more polish speakers in Wales than can't read English than there are Welsh speakers that can't read English. While I say I'm happy for the Welsh speakers to have there own language (I already speaking a little and having Welsh parents and spending a lot of time there as a child) and I may learn it someday, are they now actively trying to encourage non English literacy in Wales?

sassy_one

I think having due language signs is a great ideal.

On many visits to Wales I have seen them and think it's a great ideal, as after all, it's their language and I know of a few people who do use them!

ajuk

Ideal?


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Equaliser123

Have to say - having lived in Welsh most of my life - it gets on my nerves a bit when the Council / DVLA / NHS send me documents bilingually. Before our daughter was born, we were given an extremely impressive book about child care courtesy of the WAG. Unfortunately, it was twice as long as it needed to be - one half was English, one half in Welsh.

Why can't common sense be engaged and actually ask us if we would prefer the English or Welsh version?

I'm all for supporting the Welsh language - but not to the detriment of common sense.