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Talk:Gaelic road signs in Scotland

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Is it literally true to say that "Inverness County Council....was responsible for erecting road signs throughout the Highlands"? Wouldn't it only have been responsible for the signs in its own area, rather than in Ross-shire, Sutherland, etc., as well? C Macleòid, 9th Sept. 06

Gaelic place-names

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It would help a lot if the people who commission the signs could actually spell Gaelic. The sign illustrated in the article gives (correctly) a direction to "Àird a’ Bhàsair" (Ardvasar) - "the high place of the killing". The current sign for the A851 at Skulamus directs the traveller to "Àird a’ Mhàsair" - which means???

Incidentally, C Macleòid must be right: Inverness-shire CC was responsible only for its own patch. Those with long enough memories will recall that before the establishment of the Western Isles Council, Harris and the islands to its south were in Inverness-shire while Lewis was in Ross & Cromarty. Barmy. Kranf (talk) 22:53, 30 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nobody can argue with you about the need for getting it right. However, place names don't normally 'mean' anything (at least not in their modern forms - place name etymology does produce explanations, but they are usually pretty obscure), and when an all-too obvious meaning is given to a place name, it is usually a folk etymology (Portree was never the 'King's Port'). So I would be suspicious of an argument that one spelling is better than the other because it provides a transparent meaning. More important would be what old records show. Or what the locals do now - if they have enough Gaelic to have an opinion! --Doric Loon (talk) 21:45, 27 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Bilingual road signs in the Western Isles

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When I last went there (2004) the place-name directional signs were in Gaelic only. Looking at Google street view it seems that they've moved to bilingual for some reason... I've put something in to that effect. 92.10.175.129 (talk) 22:23, 25 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]