Walisische Radfahrer, die vom Rad vor einer Baustelle absteigen sollen, werden stattdessen informiert, dass eine Blasenkrankheit zurückgekehrt ist (icWales.co.uk):
The temporary sign, placed in front of the roadworks at Barons Court roundabout between Penarth and Cardiff, correctly says ‘cyclists dismount’ in English, but says ‘llid y bledren dymchwelyd’ in Welsh.
Owain Sgiv, an officer for the Welsh language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, explained: ‘Roughly translated, llid y bledren dymchwelyd means bladder disease has returned.
Apparently road signs are often mistranslated, because people use online translators. Does that mean there is an online Welsh translation program somewhere?
Cyclists dismount is an awkward sentence to translate as there is no Welsh word for dismount,’ he added.
‘But the correct translation would be something like dim beicio, which means literally no cycling, or man disgyn i feicwyr, which means fall-off area for cyclists.
There are a lot of bolshie cyclists in Germany who would love a language with no word for ‘dismount’. I wonder what Morfablog would make of this – I wish I could understand what they are saying.
A bit of googling (wash my mouth out with soap and water) shows that there is a flickr pool of pictures of bad translations into Welsh, according to a Live Journal diary:
So there’s a flickr pool called Scymraeg, for bad translations into Welsh. And most of what’s in there are roadsigns. BBC News today has a story about one such sign today, which tells English speakers to look right and Welsh speakers to look left.
Sounds like a plan to exterminate the Welsh. Unfortunately most of the pictures aren’t explained in English, but I suppose that’s understandable.
(Thanks to Joe)