. New Zealand has 3 official languages: English, Māori and New Zealand Sign. While many institutions have dual language names, or at least make some efforts to recognising Māori (for example, Radio NZ), it’s not really common for street signs to carry more than one language.
In Wales though, they’re more hard core, even if it doesn’t always work out correctly:
When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign, they thought the reply was what they needed.
Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council said in Welsh: “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated”.
So that was what went up under the English version which barred lorries from a road near a supermarket.
“When they’re proofing signs, they should really use someone who speaks Welsh,” said journalist Dylan Iorwerth.
[Via : BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | E-mail error ends up on road sign.]
Visit the BBC page to see a photo of the sign. Splendid!
Which all goes to show really that things such as being multi-lingual, like web accessibility, don’t do well when simply bolted on afterwards. Instead they need to be a core component.
[Welsh sign mentioned on the Wise Women mailing list.]
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Ha ha ha ha – brill and I now can link it for all my fellow Welshies
Do you read or speak Welsh yourself Mike?
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