Parla Inglese?

[blamebrampton]

frantic_mice  pushed me in the direction of fanficrants  (which I can see lasting another week on my watch list, if that). One of the more interesting of the many rants was from someone who, in essence, said 'Look, we live in a globalised age, is it really the case that reading American spellings in a fic set in the UK and vice-versa is worth making that much of a fuss about?'

And I have to agree. I can easily overlook gotten and alright if  no one over the age of 20 cries and if people only talk about their deepest feelings when they are in extremis. But for some, including a long list of commenters, there are certain Americanisms that are like a dictionary to the 43rd President of the USA and have them running at first sight.

I can somewhat sympathise, because I can find it very hard to read when characters start acting American, talking at great length about their emotions and so on. While I adore my American friends, my closest ones know that they will receive one brief hug on meeting and departure, and I will probably never tell them any of my deepest feelings. Which is not because I don't love them, but because deepest feelings are only for personal perusal so that no innocent souls will become aware of the full extent of my inner lunacy.

But for spelling and so on ... well, I regularly read books and magazines published in America and sometimes set in the UK or elsewhere in the English speaking world, and I cope with them. In fact, the YA novel I just finished changed spellings depending on whether scenes were set in New York or Sydney and it read as very very odd indeed (though it's a good novel). Dealing with such spelling anomalies is commonplace: most of you do the same.

I do like a good Britpick for things like truck/lorry, stall/cubicle, Christmas eggnog/three bottles of decent whisky and hiding in the stables, and were I writing fic set in the US, I would make certain that my characters said Dude and asked for the check. However, my authorial voice would still sound like me, which I believe is appropriate. Wodehouse and Conan Doyle both have long sections of novels (Psmith, Journalist and The Valley of Fear respectively) set in the US where they follow this rule, and these were great successes on both sides of the Atlantic.

All of which is my lengthy way of saying, I can cope perfectly well if you're an American and you write alright, color and aluminum. But if you could hold off on having the lads say 'I love you so much, sweetie, that sometimes I just want to cry'*, I would take it as a personal favour.
 

Finally, HAPPY BIRTHDAY suonguyen !


*If you have actually written a fic that contains this line, obviously it worked well in the incredibly clever context you created for it.

Comments

[thisgirl-is.livejournal.com]

I find it depends quite a lot on the specific example. (It always does, with me. It's like I'm allergic to absolutism.)

'Color' is fine. I can deal with that. However, 'Mom' makes me twitch violently, which tends to ruin my enjoyment of a story. I think that's the only actual Americanism that I can't recover from. I can forgive the rest as long as, as you say, they are behaving in a suitably British manner.

I may possibly have written a post about incorrect usages that bug me horribly, but it's locked down on account of probably being appallingly passive-aggressive. But I add things to it from time to time, and it makes me feel better, so I try not feel like too much of a pedant.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Good point, Mom is one of those words that, to me, isn't on the color/colour spectrum, it's on the aubergine/eggplant spectrum. Because it's not just a spelling difference, it's a different pronunciation entirely, and is culturally significant enough to make it worth considering as a watchword.

Go ranting!

[thisgirl-is.livejournal.com]

It's a complete culture difference. The thing is, apparently the US editions of HP all had the word 'Mum' changed to 'Mom', so there are probably some poor, misinformed American fic writers out there who are completely unaware that 'Mom' is unique to America.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I have been hearing things about the US editions of late, enough to make me deeply worried. Mom is probably the most pervasive in its awfulness. It makes you wonder how they cope with Ransome and Blyton ...

[thisgirl-is.livejournal.com]

Lashings of ginger ale! Buckets of root beer!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

SNORT! Genius.

[potteresque_ire]

Speaking of using "eggplants" to denote aubergines (which I am thoroughly guilty of ;) ) ... for some reason, while I was taught British English when I first had to tackle the language, I learned the term "eggplant" at that time as well. I did, however, learn "Mum", "colours" etc etc.

The sad thing was, when I came to the US and had to immerse in American English, I was never told that my spellings and pronunciations were correct but British, I was simply told that I was wrong - and being a non-native speaker of the language and not a good one at that, I wasn't sure enough of myself to argue. There were several words I honestly didn't know I had it right all along until I started to read Britpicked fanfics. :D

[thisgirl-is.livejournal.com]

Oh you poor thing, picked on by the mean Americans. *pets you* At least now you know you were right all along. That always makes me feel better. :o)

[potteresque_ire]

Naw, I don't necessarily think they're mean. I think they might not know about the British spellings either.
*Purrs at being petted*

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain, Australians say eggplant, too, and I recently had my brain stick between the two and ended up using the Italian. Luckily it was in an Italian delicatessen, so that worked out well ;-)

It's the 'You're wrong' that I dislike, when we do it to Americans as well as when they do it to us. US Engish was right in the 17th century, Chinglish or Indian English will probably win out in the 22nd. There's no one model any more.

[adevyish.livejournal.com]

Move to Canada! We're utterly confused as to which spelling system we're using. "Common usage" (according to the Canadian OED) has aesthetic but anemia.

(Funnily enough, I learned American English first, then British colony English.)

[alicambs.livejournal.com]

Ditto! 'Mom' makes me want to run around the house screaming. It's 'mum' damn it! :-)

[thisgirl-is.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[inamac.livejournal.com]

Or 'Mam'. The very first change to 'Mom' in the US edition of PS is Ron talking about his 'Mam' - made me wonder whether Bloomsbury shouldn't have published Scottish, Yorkshire, London and Cornish versions, as well as the Welsh one...

I never had any problems understanding the American text of Edward Eager's stories when I was a kid.