SIR,
Visiting a good friend recently in Monmouth I noticed that his street had been renamed.
Vineacre, a name dreamed up in the 1960s and based on no historical antecedents, has suddenly acquired its Welsh translation on a brand new sign. My friend assures me, there was no request from and no consultation with the residents regarding the change. It has also acquired a duplicate sign on the other side of the road to make sure that this bit of ersatz bilingualism is not missed.
A colleague in the signing business tells me that the cost including installation is likely to have been in the region of £400 - £500. Not only is this a total waste of public money but also yet another uncalled for act by the language fascists.
What next? Are we all going to be asked to provide a translation of our house names in Welsh? (What is the Welsh for Dunroamin?). Is the Post Office going to refuse to deliver letters addressed to homes and businesses in Monmouth – unless Trefynwy also appears on the envelope? Is the Welsh Assembly Government next going to insist that there is at least one Welsh forename for every newborn babe? If so, a babble of Blodwyns and Blethyns should soon be in the educational pipeline.
Is this paranoia? Not when you consider that in several Welsh Councils they are already replacing (at significant cost) the first generation of bilingual street signs that placed the English name in front of the Welsh to a format that places the Welsh name first. The third stage transition is still to come with the dropping of the English version altogether.
Where there is strong evidence of a significant historical antecedent, then translation might be justified but where the motivation is cultural determinism driven by a bankrupt bureaucracy then remember what happened to the Soviets.
Alastair Robertson
(Penallt)