Just so you know, Americans do not as a rule use the expression, "What are you on about?" To my knowledge, this is not a commonly used expression anywhere in North America
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Must be. *g* In my 44 years, I have yet to hear this from someone born in the U.S. unless they tended to sprinkle other Britishisms into their conversation, usually because of their reading habits. But Sheppard, Lorne, Rodney, Elizabeth? Nah. They sound firmly North American in canon.
(More) seriously, though, it really, really, really (no, really, it does) annoys me when Sheppard is written in British English, mostly because he's such a stereotypically American* guy in the middle of an international expedition that his speech patterns are discernably different from everyone he works with, even the ones he shares a country of origin with.
* From the western part of the country, not the Deep South--for crying out loud, HE DOES NOT HAVE A SOUTHERN ACCENT! (Er, yet another hot button. *vbg*)
Yes, exactly. And given that Joe Flanigan is almost alone in the cast in being an American, you'd think that people would hear the very discernible difference in both his pronunciation and speech patterns... because we all know that actors often "rewrite" their dialogue as they recite it, due to lack of time to memorize, exhaustion, comfort level, etc.
And I don't dispute that many of us Yanks sometimes use expressions more common across the Atlantic; I myself like to say "spot on." However, I would never write Sheppard or Lorney saying that. They would say something was "right on the money" rather than "spot on."
And when writers have the characters using perfect English, it's also sigh-making. Listen to the dialogue, my friends. You may be surprised at what you actually hear them saying.
Yeah ... I think a more general way of putting this would be to write the character (any character) as THEY talk, not as YOU talk. This is one reason why I find Carson insanely difficult to write, because I *know* his speech patterns are distinctive and I have a certain amount of trouble getting it down. Oddly, this is not necessarily true of other characters like Zelenka and Teyla, who also have distinctively non-American patterns of speaking -- I just have a lot of trouble with Carson and his British Isles phrasing
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Rant away! And yes, the teenage girl-talk thing is another one for the gonna-take-hostages-if-you-do-that-again book. It's almost as bad as having him ACT like a teenage girl.
You hit the nail on the head with "write them as THEY talk." It all goes back to listening. A lot of writers don't pay attention to how characters really talk, which is why you see Zelenka speaking like an Ellis Island refugee in some fics.
I actually read one that had Zelenka THINKING in broken English, which was so wrong on so many levels that it practically made my eyes bleed. I mean, even if you have trouble with a foreign language (which he doesn't, but I'll try not to go there), you're still going to *think* in the language that you're more comfortable with.
ROFLMAO! Wow, that's just... I have no words for what that is.
I think that a lot of writers tend to develop a thumbnail view of a character based on a rather narrow selection of stuff they've seen in canon, then add a huge portion of what they want the character to be. That may be why they write them so OOC - the characters match the inner picture they've created in their minds rather than what the rest of us all see when we watch the show.
Like you, I pick up on when an American or Canadian character uses a British expression. It usually pulls me right out of the story. The person is no longer in character
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Yeah, there are so many subtle differences between various regions of the U.S. that I'm sure it's quite hard for UK writers to sort through and make the right decisions. They need to make that effort, though, because speech pattern is something that goes directly to characterization, and if it is off, it does pull the reader out of the story.
I have read several Star Trek: Enterprise fics where Trip, who is from Northern Florida, clearly to my ear sounds like he's from Texas.
I wonder if that's why the SGA writers had the Atlantians tell Michael he was from Texas. :D
I did wonder - why Texas? If the actor is from Washington State, and if it doesn't matter to the story *exactly* where the character is supposed to be from, why pick Texas?
Don't have much to add to your post, but had to say I pretty much agree with everything you wrote. Not to mention the comments. Glad I'm not the only one, really.
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:)
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Ok, I'll stop before I get all worked up. *g* (Wait, too late.)
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Um... that was merely an enthusiastic affirmative, not an orgasm.
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(More) seriously, though, it really, really, really (no, really, it does) annoys me when Sheppard is written in British English, mostly because he's such a stereotypically American* guy in the middle of an international expedition that his speech patterns are discernably different from everyone he works with, even the ones he shares a country of origin with.
* From the western part of the country, not the Deep South--for crying out loud, HE DOES NOT HAVE A SOUTHERN ACCENT! (Er, yet another hot button. *vbg*)
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And I don't dispute that many of us Yanks sometimes use expressions more common across the Atlantic; I myself like to say "spot on." However, I would never write Sheppard or Lorney saying that. They would say something was "right on the money" rather than "spot on."
And when writers have the characters using perfect English, it's also sigh-making. Listen to the dialogue, my friends. You may be surprised at what you actually hear them saying.
Reply
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You hit the nail on the head with "write them as THEY talk." It all goes back to listening. A lot of writers don't pay attention to how characters really talk, which is why you see Zelenka speaking like an Ellis Island refugee in some fics.
Reply
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I think that a lot of writers tend to develop a thumbnail view of a character based on a rather narrow selection of stuff they've seen in canon, then add a huge portion of what they want the character to be. That may be why they write them so OOC - the characters match the inner picture they've created in their minds rather than what the rest of us all see when we watch the show.
Reply
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I have read several Star Trek: Enterprise fics where Trip, who is from Northern Florida, clearly to my ear sounds like he's from Texas.
I wonder if that's why the SGA writers had the Atlantians tell Michael he was from Texas. :D
Reply
I did wonder - why Texas? If the actor is from Washington State, and if it doesn't matter to the story *exactly* where the character is supposed to be from, why pick Texas?
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