UK English, American English, how does it translate?

[SexyVita]

My apologies, I didn't mean to offend .

No worries. I get sensetive about weird shit. And with only 4 hours of sleep at the time I wrote that I was a bit sharper than I would have been otherwise.

 

[stickygirl]

Oh Jesus Christ.

Though, to be fair, people drink reindeer piss to get high

If you live near reindeer there's fuck all else to do, once you're bored with sledging. Rotten fish is popular too but that may be a hygiene euphemism idk

 

[alohadave]

We have a wide variety of accents in the US but I can't think of any that are as difficult to understand as some of the accents in Britain

Appalachian can be tough.

 

[SexyVita]

I think it's interesting

Interesting, yes. Intelligible to the rest of the English speaking world, no. I would argue that language's primary purpose is to convey information, even in its crudest or highest artistic forms. The moment a language deviates so far as to fail to do that for people that ostensibly speak the same language is the moment it becomes, in effect, a different language.

 

[ronde]

Define "early England" - there's rather a long history!

I like the period from the 1600's to about 1800.

 

[SexyVita]

Agreed. We have a wide variety of accents in the US but I can't think of any that are as difficult to understand as some of the accents in Britain, and I get the sense that even many Brits find some of the accents of their countryman unintelligible. Backwoods Cajun is a bit hard to understand. Maybe some Appalachian accents. I have a typical "American broadcaster" type of accent typical of the western US and I can easily understand people from Minnesota, Boston, New York, New Jersey, and the South.

I used to work in an office as the only American along with two Brits, a Malayian, an Indian (from India), an Assie, and a woman from South Africa and we were all intelligible to each other.

Canadians are understandable if you first get past them making everthing into a question with the addition of "eh?" at the end of their sentences. I actually thought that was an American stereotype of Canadians until I actually met some that talk that way!

 

[SimonDoom]

Piss in Uk English can be

• taken ( are you taking the ... ? )
• a long streak of ... ( a person regarded as a waste of space/ useless person )
• an expression of frustration/anger ( I broke my favourite necklace - I'm so pissed (off) )
• drunkeness ( He was so pissed, the twat. Off his fuckin face wann'e )
• or a piece of ... ( it was an easy task )

ETA in Fetish some people neck it, either from the source or a bottle.
Because we are exposed to US tv, we also understand 'He looked so pissed' to mean threatening anger.

In New England there's "wicked pissah" which means "outstanding" or "awesome." Not being from New England, but having spent some time there, I always found this one amusing. I never heard it growing up.

 

[ishtat]

BritTongue is easy enough. The toughie is OzSpeak.

Not really, with more than 50% of Australians born overseas or with an overseas born parent, the accent varies a lot. Really strong Oz speak is only found outside of the major cities and especially in Queensland.

 

[ronde]

Appalachian can be tough.

Very true. I live in the South and when I write about the modern South, I usually have to make sure I put "shopping buggies" and "carrying" people to the store into context.

 

[alohadave]

In New England there's "wicked pissah" which means "outstanding" or "awesome." Not being from New England, but having spent some time there, I always found this one amusing. I never heard it growing up.

Wicked is a modifier, similiar to very. Something is wicked cool, or wicked awesome, etc. That's how most people used it, even in NE. Can be used alone as well.

Pisser isn't used much except with wicked, and even then it's more of a cliche term that tourists think we say all the time. I knew an older woman who did use pisser in normal speech, but it's not commonly used.

 

[alohadave]

Not really, with more than 50% of Australians born overseas or with an overseas born parent, the accent varies a lot. Really strong Oz speak is only found outside of the major cities and especially in Queensland.

The thing that always stands out to me isn't the accent, it's the vernacular that you use. Everything has a nickname.

 

[jehoram]

I actually prefer some of the British alternatives for Pussy, like Fanny or Nunny.

Nunny? That's a new one for me. Hard to see what it has to do with nuns, unless you've got a clergy fetish.

My rule is, that when I start a story that's set in Britain and I use British if the narrator is British or when a British character is speaking, I make it plain right at the outset that the context is not going to be American. After that, I leave it to the reader to make the necessary adjustments.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I like the period from the 1600's to about 1800.

Ah, the Early Modern period (Early Modern is 1500-1700 or 1450-1789).

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I don't appreciate unsolicited edits. I meant what I said, if the English is so mangled as to require an interpreter for a native English speaker, something is very wrong.

Or it's a dialect issue. Brits generally understand American fine, especially in writing, because we see so much of it. Australian, no problem. South African, maybe a lot of unfamiliar slang.
Indian English - often very confusing to Brits, but perfectly plain to 250 million other Indians (and more who aren't native speakers but still understand doing the needful with one crore).

Malaysian English - hard to believe it's English when it goes seriously Manglish dialect. But then you could say the same about Geordie or yam-yam (English dialects from England), not to mention other UK ones. I've been on work trips to NI where it was simply assumed I'd need a translator...

Plenty of readers here are happy to read stories in British English, though some don't want to make the effort. If I write in American or carefully avoiding too many UK terms, I get more readers, but I like playing with various dialects. And some people appreciate it, e.g. my Smoking Hot series, which started just as an exercise to see if I could write dialogue showing characters to be a Brummie and a Northern Irish guy and another speaker closer to RP...

 

[alohadave]

Plenty of readers here are happy to read stories in British English,

For a while I thought Literotica was based in the UK because there are so many stories that were written in British English and had obvious UK references.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Canadians are understandable if you first get past them making everthing into a question with the addition of "eh?" at the end of their sentences. I actually thought that was an American stereotype of Canadians until I actually met some that talk that way!

I've not met many Canucks, but everyone of them had the rising inflection, eh?

I figure it's to help drop bears distinguish Canadians from Americans, on darker nights when they can't see the Hawaiian shirts.

 

[SexyVita]

I've not met many Canucks, but everyone of them had the rising inflection, eh?

I figure it's to help drop bears distinguish Canadians from Americans, on darker nights when they can't see the Hawaiian shirts.

Is that why I got along so well with the drop bears? I live so close to the Canadian border they must have mistaken me for a Canuck in the dark. I think they prefer Americans because the extra fat makes the meat taste better.

The first time I heard about drop bears, I imagined carnivorous koalas in camo repelling from the eucalyptus trees, snatching people, and then pulling them up into the trees to eat them. But they're actually pretty decent blokes if you can overlook their attrocious table manners.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Is that why I got along so well with the drop bears? I live so close to the Canadian border they must have mistaken me for a Canuck in the dark. I think they prefer Americans because the extra fat makes the meat taste better.

The first time I heard about drop bears, I imagined carnivorous koalas in camo repelling from the eucalyptus trees, snatching people, and then pulling them up into the trees to eat them. But they're actually pretty decent blokes if you can overlook their attrocious table manners.

You're thinking of the Greater Eastern Drop Bear. The ones to watch are the Smaller Southerns. They've got lethally sharp claws, and will drop on their victim from behind and, with one slice, remove the top of the skull. They do it so quickly the victim will often take several more steps before falling.

It's the inspiration for that scene from the Hannibal Lector movie, the one with Julianne Moore, not Jodie Foster.

True story. You read it on the internet...

 

[SexyVita]

You're thinking of the Greater Eastern Drop Bear. The ones to watch are the Smaller Southerns. They've got lethally sharp claws, and will drop on their victim from behind and, with one slice, remove the top of the skull. They do it so quickly the victim will often take several more steps before falling.

See, I knew they didn't seem as ferocious as everyone said. I was an American working for a German company on a project in Sydney, and I never got further from Sydney than the Blue Mountains, so that explains it.

 

[R. Richard]

Whilst, amongst, whom, towards, where/when/why etc aspirated, this/that/those etc, enunciated - I can do it all. Aural sex at its finest.

Whilst some may praiseth, and stateth thine is the way, I find mine interlocutor has overlooked geordie.

 

[MajorRewrite]

You're thinking of the Greater Eastern Drop Bear. The ones to watch are the Smaller Southerns.

I‘ve heard that the Spotted Western Drop Bear is so lethargic that it doesn’t actually drop. It just scratches its fleas so they rain down on people who walk below.

Can you confirm?

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Whilst some may praiseth, and stateth thine is the way, I find mine interlocutor has overlooked geordie.

Hadaway, pet, ya can gan chat propa geet Toon wi us. Reet like owa yem, like, man.

Ya says that ain't English, ye's a reet doylem an all.

 

[onehitwanda]

Hadaway, pet, ya can gan chat propa geet Toon wi us. Reet like owa yem, like, man.

Ya says that ain't English, ye's a reet doylem an all.

https://theimmortalreaders.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/confusion-gif.gif

 

[Richard_Hunter]

Lol - funny you bring this up, and I know exactly where you are coming from with the whole release on Kindle thing.
I wrote a book, based on an Australian topic (I am Australian), spent almost 18 months researching, interviewing and piecing together. Marketed and Released it... only for one of the early reviews to be a one-star review because "the Author obviously didn't edit it, simple English words like favorite are spelt incorrectly..." yep my first review in my first big attempt at a book complained about using Australian English, by an Australian author, on an Australian subject.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

https://theimmortalreaders.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/confusion-gif.gif

Howay man, divvin fret hinny.

Just saying 'on the contrary, pal, you can talk Geordie with me no problem. Just like at home, y'know.' and 'encouragement, don't worry, woman.'

I've never actually tried typing Geordie before!