Egregious Britticisms: Bits of Regionalization Error Collected in the Wild from Stranger Things Fic

[cimorene]

Since the Queen of England just died and a storm of memes and retreaded debates about colonialism resulted, it's perhaps an apropos time for this collection of the spoils of fic spelunking - I tried to post them earlier this week and was stymied by a server hiccup, but it feels much more timely now!

Suggested subtitles: This Is What American Pickers Are For or perhaps An Incomplete Revenge for Decades of Harry Potter Fanfiction By Americans.

take the mickey;  get a wriggle on;  does a runner;  looked a wreck;  all kinds of plaids and quilts [ed: blankets];  unmarked essays;  straight away;  "I'll whack it into [place]";  good at maths;  the whole bleeding lot of them;  scarpered;  in the same year [ed: grade];  the lino in the kitchen;  whilst;  daft;  "she fancies the bride";  the Buckley residence's lounge;  "I daren't";  piss about;  "No worries";  theatre;  a plaster [ed: bandaid];  torch [ed: flashlight];  haven't got a clue;  Hurt like buggery;  get his kit off;  drive about;  rubbish;  "Are you still on about that?";  paid any mind;  "Yes mum";  naught but wire;  to sort out;  drawn and then rubbed out again;  on family holidays;  cinema

Comments

[laurenthemself]

Thank gods the most I have to do in the way of regionalisation for work is changing the odd z to an s and putting a u here and there, because that's mostly industry-specific writing.

Speaking of colonisation, when doing work for one client, there are times where I have to make sure the Te Reo appears before the English, as in Aotearoa New Zealand.

[niqaeli]

I mean, I am American and from the smallish-towncity South, and the majority (though not all) of these are within my idiolect but I am also a child of the 1990s and the internet and 1970s SFF fen formerly of California who encouraged me in reading voraciously. And not, uh, a child of the 1980s.

I think "An Incomplete Revenge for Decades of Harry Potter Fanfiction By Americans." is a pretty accurate description, lol.

[cimorene]

Yeah, my childhood reading and watching habits quickly taught me what all of these meant, but I definitely wouldn't have heard them from the ordinary Americans around me in my childhood in the south and midwest in the 1980s-90s.

[stranger]

Hum. Are these British idioms that American readers might need noted, or are they odd or amusing variations on British usage? It looks like mostly the first, but maybe a few of the second, to me?

Am native American English speaker with extensive reading experience of English- and British-authored texts, notably fanfic of the 1980s forward. By the time HP came around, I didn't really notice a difference between the "Philosopher's Stone" and "Sorcerer's Stone" editions, except that changing the title was a stupid move. I did learn a *great* deal from Brit-pickers whinging about American writers inserting cheerleaders and graduation ceremonies into Hogwarts -- having an eye for idioms didn't mean I'd been there! Still learning...

[laurajv]

I think they're British usage that Online American Teens Of Today might use, but that the vast majority of American teens in the 1980s would never have encountered and would definitely not use.

There are one or two of them that I would have used as a kid around that time period, but one of those I think has a slightly different meaning in US English actually, and I almost certainly acquired the other from books or from my incredibly well-read mother.

[cimorene]

They're things that average American teenagers of the 1980s wouldn't say or think and that as such a competent American picker would have caught and fixed.

[stranger]

Ahhh, gotcha. I might not have known all them in the 80s, but after LotR (movies) fandom, oh yes.

[conuly]

As a child of the 1990s, I feel like telling all these fic writers that when I read about "torches" in British books, I assumed that England didn't have flashlights and these kids were running around with lit flames.

[laurajv]

this was a major source of confusion for me in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[cimorene]

My mom explained that one to me as a kid, but I did always picture flames anyway.

[ealgylden]

I was so jealous of those British kids running around like a mob in Frankenstein, or so I thought. Way more dramatic than anything I got to do.

[loafing_oaf]

Hello! Coming out of years of lurkdom to say this is very helpful. As a Brit who has been living in Canada for fifteen years, I still find out on an almost weekly basis that I am using words and phrases no one understands. I had a colleague confess recently that half of the time he has no idea what I am saying so he just smiles and nods. "Having a row" (having an argument) was, I think, the first thing I confused people with, and most recently it was "Talking nineteen to the dozen", and saying that things in my office were strewn "higgledy piggledy", which upon reflection sounds completely made up.

Also, I think everyone should adopt "get a wriggle on". Which reminds me, is "get a move on" UK only, or is that one everywhere?

[cimorene]

I'm pretty sure higgledy piggledy is just old fashioned, although it definitely isn't in normal use in most of North America. I think it was in my Mother Goose, for one thing.

Get a move on is North American too.

[loafing_oaf]

Thank you for the info re those two. My Mum tended to use some English words and phrases that I am told are 'archaic' so I have a kind of Venn diagram going of 'words that are not in use here' and 'words that are very old fashioned', and I'm not usually certain which is which, or where the overlap occurs.