Tesco puts up Welsh language signs in Cornish shop...

[dutchman]

Supermarket apologises after language blunder leaves locals scratching their heads



Shoppers in a Cornish town have been left baffled after a Tesco branch put up new signs in Welsh.

Customers navigating the supermarket in Helston were surprised to see that the seafood counter was labelled “bwyd môr” rather than the native “boos mor”.

Those in search of sweet potato were presented with signs for “tatws melys” as opposed to “aval dor melys”.

Loveday Jenkin, a councillor, welcomed attempts to install bilingual signage in supermarkets, but said it would have been “more exciting if they had been in Cornish rather than Welsh”.

Ms Jenkin said a silver lining of the blunder could be a renewed push for Kernewek, the Cornish language, to be used in everyday life.

Around 400 to 500 people are thought to be advanced speakers of Cornish, while between 2,500 and 5,000 have some basic understanding of the language.

The councillor, of Mebyon Kernow, acknowledged that there were similarities between the two languages.

“Cornish speakers can understand some of the Welsh because some of the words are similar,” she told the BBC, adding: “It’s really good to normalise the language around the place.”

Dr Garry Tregidga, the co-director of the University of Exeter’s Institute for Cornish Studies, said the error was “embarrassing” for Tesco, but showed the supermarket had good intentions.

He added: “What is also positive is that this mistake was spotted. This is a sign of the increasing number of people who are using and recognising Cornish. If anyone from Tesco needs assistance putting together the new signs there are plenty of people who would be glad to help.”

Kernewek and Welsh are Brythonic Celtic languages, along with Breton.

Last month, the Cornish language was given extra protection through the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, putting it on a par with Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scots Gaelic.

The designation officially recognises the importance of Cornish as a living language and a core part of Cornwall’s cultural identity, and has been welcomed by campaigners.

Once spoken by most Cornish people, the language had all but died out by 1800. After a revival in the 20th century, it was reclassified from “extinct” to “critically endangered” by Unesco, and the 2021 census listed the number of speakers as 563.

The Cornish people are a recognised national minority under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, meaning they share the same status as the Welsh, Irish and Scots within the UK.

A Tesco spokesman said: “We’re sorry for this mistake and have removed these signs.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/05/tesco-welsh-language-signs-cornish-shop-mistake/