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WH Smith accused of making mockery of Welsh language at self-service tills
ONE of Britains top retailers has been accused of making a mockery of the Welsh language at its self-service payment tills.Welsh-speaking visitors to WH Smiths Cardiff city centre store were astonished by the way questions to customers buying goods had been drafted.They posted details on the website of the free language learning website SaySomethingInWelsh.comTranslated back into English, the three steps for purchasers would read:Make ou need towards buying any gwith n exaltation items?Broughtest you plastic bags? Thouch yes and bag accuse gwith 0.01 will be ajouter to ou total;Pleasing thake ou n above offer voucher gwith r highly above holder.(Note from Mona: All I can say is they must have looked at the English translations to figure these out, because I couldn't begin to make heads or tails out of the jibberish!)Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/2011/09/14/wh-smith-s-self-service-tills-fail-to-saysomethinginwelsh-as-gobbledegook-translation-angers-the-experts-91466-29416928/#ixzz1Y1CroriK
The WH Smith debacle, which I read about when I was in Carmarthen last, is rather like the phrasebook "English As She Is Spoke" devised the Portuguese Pedro Carolina in the 19th century. He didn't actually speak English so he used a French/English dictionary to "help" him. He came up with wonderful phrases like "To craunch a marmoset", "Nothing of money, nothing of Swiss" and "he eat to coaches".
Almost right, Emyr, it was "Fo a Fe". Gaynor Morgan Rees played the daughter who had both her own father and her husband's father living with them. One was north Welsh and one south Welsh, hence the title. In Carmarthen, a lot of people speak in mixture of Welsh and English so I can't imagine why that assistant was surprised. I remember many years ago, when working in Carmarthen, one colleague who spoke Welsh most of the time used the word "writo" (as in to write) rather than sgryfennu and I was quite surprised!
@ Gillian i think the programme was called Fe a Fo with Ryan Davies
http://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fo_a_Fe
There was a programme on S4C many years ago which I enjoyed. It was humorousin a sophisticated way. An actress called Geinor Morgan (?) playedthe daughter and when addressing 'Dadda' she spoke in Welsh but oftenthrew in an English cliche, which she delivered in 'received English' pronounciation.
I was speaking Welsh to an assistant in a Carmarthen shop recently, and finished the sentence with 'So they say', which I said in English. The assistant looked at me for a moment and asked : 'Have you learnt Welsh?'
(I haven't, it's my first language, but I see no harm in mixing languages now and again, as long as what you say isintelligible).