Right. I'm English, and I'm in two fandoms (this one, natch, and HP) based on very English books. However, most fandom authors tend to be American
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As a Brit myself, it irks me when 'English' fandoms get swamped in Americanisms. I don't think it's such a problem in linking paragraphs, but in speech, especially with a character as quintissentially English as Aziraphale, it throws the theme and feel of the piece. Just to balance it out though, I feel the same about American fandoms when English speech patterns show up, it doesn't work, and irks me.
If someone were to tell me, politely, that I'd done something like that I wouldn't have a problem with it, I'd be glad of the comments that I could improve on.
I'm sure that makes no sense, so I'm going back to painting before I make a fool of myself.
Well, speaking only for myself and with the caveat that I'm not very prolific, I would *love* to have someone like you point out the unintentional Americanisms in my fics. I think capturing the proper colloquialisms in speech is very important for trying to be true to the source material and the sense of the character
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Oh yes. I, for one, would definitely like for people to let me know. Not just with Britishisms, although that's really important to me (I write in HP and Dark is Rising), but I'd also want people to give me a heads-up if they see my American South dialect slipping in.
I'd also want people to give me a heads-up if they see my American South dialect slipping in.
Oh yes, me too. It's so hard sometimes to realize what bits aren't common to the rest of the English-speaking world. I mean, I always thought "ain't" was a strictly American South word, but according to kabukivice's page, it's English slang as well. Now if I can only somehow export "y'all" to the rest of the world.
Just as long as you communicate the fact that "y'all" means "you all." As in, "all of you." Plural. It irks me tremendously when I hear people using "y'all" to refer to one person.
Oh god, YES! Nothing causes me to snarl quite so much as hearing "y'all" used as a singular second person pronoun. My nephew makes me watch Spongebob with him, and one of the characters do that ALL THE TIME. Grrr. Makes me want to go stick a spork in the writers. (I also get peeved if people misspell "y'all" which is something my local paper did for a while. It is not "ya'll." There is no word "ya" in the phrase. It's "you all" --> "y'all." Get it? Got it? Good.)
As a person to whom English in all its forms is a foreign language, the more subtle forms of Americanization in text don't really bother me, because I simply am not capable of noticing them. But yes, anything too blatantly American in a British fandom is irritating as hell. :]
Best to check out how old/sensitive the writer is first. I left a note on ff.net last year, politely offering my services at a Brit-picker to a moderately talented writer whose HP fic was full of annoying Americanisms. I got royally flamed for my trouble. The author was 15, and become incoherant with rage that I'd critisised her story, not on the plot, but on the word choices.
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Just to balance it out though, I feel the same about American fandoms when English speech patterns show up, it doesn't work, and irks me.
If someone were to tell me, politely, that I'd done something like that I wouldn't have a problem with it, I'd be glad of the comments that I could improve on.
I'm sure that makes no sense, so I'm going back to painting before I make a fool of myself.
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Oh yes, me too. It's so hard sometimes to realize what bits aren't common to the rest of the English-speaking world. I mean, I always thought "ain't" was a strictly American South word, but according to kabukivice's page, it's English slang as well. Now if I can only somehow export "y'all" to the rest of the world.
[subliminal] Y'all, y'all, y'all [/subliminal]
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