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Story's set in the UK, but I'm American. Do I need to account for British English?

Old Hack

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[/COLOR]AAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!!! NOOOOOOO!!! FOR THE LOVE OF BREXIT STOPPIIITTTT!!!!!

Can we please just ban the word 'British' when referring to culture / accent or anything else that regularly gets homogenised from the beautifully diverse and ever so slightly mental juxtaposition of disparate identities that makes up our beautiful United Kingdom?? There IS no 'British' accent - if you want to go down to the broadest classification that makes sense, say Scottish, or Welsh (everyone say whut?) or English. But it makes me roll my eyes so hard when people refer to us as having 'British accents' - or even worse, use it interchangeably with English.

Eye twitchy rant over... :Wha:

YES.

I am so with you on this one.

Also, don't assume that British is the same thing as English. I saw a report on Facebook a few days ago which came from a reputable source as far as I could see, which compared healthcare (I think) from different countries. One of the countries listed was this:

UK (England and Northern Ireland)

I couldn't understand why they'd either excluded Scotland and Wales, or assumed they were part of England.

Sorry for the tangent. But yes, yes, yes.

Having lived in the U.K. for a few years, and traveled widely within it, I ultimately came to the opinion that a skilled linguist could probably determine a U.K. native person's locality of birth within a few yards, just by hearing them speak for about thirty seconds.

caw

My husband is from the north of England. He can imitate lots of northern accents, and they're so varied--amazing for such a small country. Some of our towns and cities have accents which are markedly different to the next town over, even though it might only be a few miles away.

My last novel begins in London, then moves elsewhere. Those first four chapters got beta-read by UK folks, but there were differences of opinion on various terms, food habits etc between Londoners, and those from outside London. I think it matters what part of UK it is set in--get beta-reads from peeps from that location, if possible.

There's a huge difference in north and south of the river, for example: both in accents and habits; east and west differ widely too, but in different ways. You're right: London is not a homogenous place.
 

Harlequin

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Having lived in the U.K. for a few years, and traveled widely within it, I ultimately came to the opinion that a skilled linguist could probably determine a U.K. native person's locality of birth within a few yards, just by hearing them speak for about thirty seconds.

caw

Indeed they can. In the infamous case of the Yorkshire ripper, a linguist pinpointed the caller's origin to within a mile of his place of birth; sadly, the caller was a hoax. Still a good show of skill!
 

Cindyt

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I'm going to take advice and look into finding a Liverpool area beta. I also ordered books published in the UK and found an American English-British English translator online. I've tried it a few times, and it's been spot on with what I already knew. I'm still not going to nitpick. As I've said before, if Hercules can say "Okay" I can get away with a lot. There's also Janelle Taylor's Cherokee romance set in the 18th century, but reads like nineteenth. The Last of the Mahicans is set in New York, but those people were English. I tried to read it, and it was just too flowery or something for me.
 

LeftyLucy

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I'm going to take advice and look into finding a Liverpool area beta. I also ordered books published in the UK and found an American English-British English translator online. I've tried it a few times, and it's been spot on with what I already knew. I'm still not going to nitpick. As I've said before, if Hercules can say "Okay" I can get away with a lot. There's also Janelle Taylor's Cherokee romance set in the 18th century, but reads like nineteenth. The Last of the Mahicans is set in New York, but those people were English. I tried to read it, and it was just too flowery or something for me.

I expect (and as someone who is also writing a story partially sent in England, I hope) that, like many things in writing, the better the story is told, the more latitude we're granted. I plan to find an appropriate beta, too, but I'm sure there will still be a discernible American thumbprint ... it just means the story has to be even stronger.

A general note for other Americans drawn to set stories in the U.K.: An under-recognized source of insight when it comes to U.S./U.K. differences is Reddit. The Brits here on AbsoluteWrite (as we can see in this very thread!) are super helpful, too. But there are a million threads on Reddit about the differences in language and culture, and it's a good investment of time to read lots and lots of them. Take the comments for what they're worth, but over time there are clear patterns that help with not just differences in specific words, but also broader cultural differences that influence dialogue, like the British tendency toward (generalizations to follow) understatement and irony, or their love of banter. Take the things you read there, and apply them to the British authors you read and the British television and movies you watch, and you'll be amazed at how many subtle differences you'll begin to see.

From that understanding, you can start thinking more deeply about who your characters are - their class, their age, where they live - and what that means for how they speak. I think Americans are most familiar (superficially, at least) with Received Pronunciation and Cockney, but in reality, many characters won't use either of those. (And thank goodness for that, because anything outside the most "apples and pears" famous of Cockney rhyming slang is near impossible to work through without Google at the ready.)
 
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Azkaellion

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Yes, you need to.

Since I’m a Brit, feel free to query me at your leisure.
 

Daggilarr

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If you get it wrong the American readers won't notice, but us brits will hurl the damn thing into the nearest bin.