LONDON – When you're playing around with Gaelic grammar, you'd better be damn sure you've got your accent marks in the right places.
One sign on Scotland's Isle of Bute fell victim to this recently, after it was discovered that the Gaelic translation was missing a very small, but very crucial, detail.
Dearie me! Argyll & Bute miss the accent on Bhòid so sign reads Welcome To Penis Island #Rothesay pic.twitter.com/tv0xEQRexB— James McLeary (@JamesMcLeary) August 23, 2015
Yep, that's right. By missing the accent off Bhòid in the final word of the last line, the meaning of the translation changes from "Welcome to the beauty of the Isle of Bute" to "Welcome to the beauty of Penis Island."
"It makes us look bloody stupid," Bute councillor Len Scoullar told The Scotsman. "I’m not a Gaelic speaker but I would apologise to people who are Gaelic speakers and we will rectify it right away."
"I’m sure it’s the big sign the council put up many, many years ago. It would probably be about nine years ago, the exact day I don’t remember. I will make enquiries as to who ordered the sign."
So basically, a sign on Scotland has been welcoming Gaelic speakers to a place called "Penis Island" for the last nine years or so. Let's take a moment to think about that.