Quote:
Originally Posted by Little.Egret
Not quite. If it's set in Britain, fine, but you might still wish to avoid choices that bring a US reader to a screeching halt.
So 'bollard', 'lay-by', even 'absolute majority'.
And more so if it's SF or fantasy.
Mind you there was a US author who decided "this space colony was founded by Brits" and changed 'truck' to 'lorry'. I know this because he changed 'truck garden' to 'lorry garden'.
The blog https://britishisms.wordpress.com/ may be of interest if you don't recognise something odd as British |
They are just words and can be looked up or figured out, especially these days. But the big publishers will continue to "Translate" for us and for me, it loses a certain feel of time and setting. Like I said--I read Harry Potter and missed a certain feel of London because everything had been 'translated.'
But we all deal with it. There are some British words/phrases I come across and I'm not completely certain of the exact meaning, but it doesn't bring me to a halt. I never knew if sod off was the equivalent of F* off or just "Get lost." But it turns out it really doesn't matter all that much. If I read it, I get the context and I get the vehemency by the character/personality or context. Bloody Hell is another one. But it's the same with Spanish curse words. Some of the meaning is entirely regional. There's a local Spanish curse word in New Mexico that translates to "little goats." But that literal translation has NOTHING to do with the meaning if you are actually CALLED that word. Reading is like that. You pay attention to the other words around the ones you don't understand.
I think the regional words or, for this discussion, British words add to the story and setting. When they are taken out or replaced, a little piece of realism is missing.