ROAD SIGNS: IS THIS THE WAY TO ARDNAMURCHAN?

NOTEBOOK by BILL HEANEY

Spelling. It’s hard enough being good at it in English, but when it comes to Gaelic it can be an insurmountable problem since only one per cent of us can speak the native language never mind spell it.

We all know what ochone, ochone means since it appeared in Angus Og cartoons in the once much-loved Daily Record for years. It’s the equivalent of O Me Miserum in Latin and Deary, deary me in Gaelic.

The “Scottish” Daily Express has been left with its kilt around its ankles today by claiming the SNP government has suffered “Gaelic humiliation”.

They appear to be not so good at spelling themselves, however.

They are confused about the spelling of misspelt while criticising the fact that a number of road signs in Scotland have been “misspelled despite push for language”.

However, above this their story states: “A number of bilingual signs in the Highlands have been misspelt by SNP Government quangos despite the huge push for the language to be learned, and the millions of pounds spent on it.”

“Bilingual signs have proved controversial for some in recent years amid concerns over their cost and alleged road safety impact. A number of roads in the Highlands have place names in both languages, as does police and ambulance vehicles as well as train stations.”

We have them here in West Dunbartonshire as well.

Their story adds: “In correspondence received by this website through freedom of information legislation, annoyed Gaelic speakers have got in touch with the transport quango to detail their disappointment.

“This included sites on the A87, with one sign being corrected with a patch overlay and another renewed because a larger sign plate was required.

“One traveller got in touch to say that the sign for Crianlarich in Gaelic is ‘catastrophically wrong’ and was promised that it would be fixed, with two letters on the sign being wrong. But there are two misspelled signs on the A82 which remain incorrect.

**The email from concerned Gaelic speaker**

“Both are on the approach to Fort William, coming from the north, near the junction to old Inverlochy Castle and at the roundabout immediately following it.

“One person wrote to say: ‘The Gaelic phrase ‘Meadhan a’ Bhaile’ is misspelled two different ways. On the first sign, ‘Meadhan’ is misspelled ‘Meahdan’ and on the second one ‘Bhaile’ is misspelled ‘Bhal.’

“In the first sign, the words ‘Chrion’ and ‘Lariach’ are also misspelled; the accents are omitted. It would be very helpful if these signs were corrected and replaced at an early date.

“This email was sent in February 2024 but the signs remain incorrect to this day, according to Bear Scotland.

“Correspondence also showed that in 2023 a Transport Scotland employee pleaded with their colleagues to double and triple check sign spellings were right after a spate of mistakes.

“They wrote: ‘Please send PDF proofs of any signs before they are printed to avoid typos.”

It’s not only the spelling but the grammar that the roads people are having problems with, as illustrated in the following response from BEAR Scotland.

“A spokeswoman for BEAR Scotland said: ‘The sign at North Road Roundabout, Fort William, which have incorrect Gaelic spelling, was installed by the developer within private property during the construction of the retail development at this location.

‘The owner of the land has informed that a formal legal agreement requires to be put in place before BEAR Scotland can be given permission to access to the sign to correct the Gaelic misspelling. This has delayed matters and we apologise for the inconvenience this has caused.’

‘BEAR Scotland had planned to make best use of resources by attending to both signs at the same time. However, as the formal legal agreement is still ongoing for one of the signs, we are not wishing to delay rectifying the spelling of the other sign any further and are currently arranging for this sign to be attended to.'”

Now you know, dear reader, why we spend all that hard earned tax money on spin doctors. What a load of malarkey!