Embrisk Posted October 7, 2018 Report Share Posted October 7, 2018 Just wondering who out there gets irked or cringes at the american spelling. Especially with there being such a repetition of color honor aluminum nnngaaah. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Cole Posted October 7, 2018 Report Share Posted October 7, 2018 Honor is a name, don't see why that would irk you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silva Posted October 7, 2018 Report Share Posted October 7, 2018 @Servillius, it bothers me and I'm American. Realise and organise must be spelled with an 's', colour must have a 'u' as well as honour, even if the word is being used as a name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draginon Posted October 7, 2018 Report Share Posted October 7, 2018 For me it only gets on my nerves is when it's a British, or other British spelling nation, book and the spelling is changed here. I mean I read Rowling's non Harry Potter books and hated the American spelling when it did pop up (she did a good job of using very few of those words), same with Terry Prachet's The Color of Magic. If my copy of Hitchhiker's Guide is using the American spelling that'll be so annoying for me. The one American spelling I don't like is gray. Grey feels more natural for that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embrisk Posted October 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2018 I love the american spelling for artifact. Artefact just looks odd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draginon Posted October 8, 2018 Report Share Posted October 8, 2018 @Servillius never seen that spelling of of it in any unaltered British books Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just a Lifetime Posted October 8, 2018 Report Share Posted October 8, 2018 On 10/7/2018 at 4:49 PM, Silva said: it bothers me and I'm American. Realise and organise must be spelled with an 's' Fun fact: In UK English both the -ize and -ise forms (of these and many other words) are in common use and "neither is 'more right' than the other". I'm quoting from this OED blog post, which sets out a couple of reasons why the OED prefers the -ize form: It historically predates the -ise form and it reflects the (Greek) etymology of these words. Wikipedia quotes a third reason that I no longer see on the OED site, namely that -ize better reflects the pronunciation of these words in most dialects. On StackExchange I've seen claims that the push for -ise forms in the UK picked up post-WWII, perhaps to promote a sense a national identity distinct from the US. (This seems quite speculative, but if true would form an ironic counterpoint to one of the motivations for the post-revolution US spelling reforms pushed by Webster et al.) Overall the -ize forms tend to be used more in formal and technical writing in the UK, while the -ise forms tend to be used more in tabloid and other pop writing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scion of the Mists Posted October 9, 2018 Report Share Posted October 9, 2018 I mean, Brandon is an American. It'd be pretty weird if he used non-American spelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draginon Posted October 10, 2018 Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 On 10/9/2018 at 8:02 AM, Scion of the Mists said: I mean, Brandon is an American. It'd be pretty weird if he used non-American spelling. I'm American as well but if I wrote a story set in England or a fantasy world that's British in language I'd use the British spelling all the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRioter Posted October 11, 2018 Report Share Posted October 11, 2018 Personally I don't see it as a big deal either way. Brandon is American so he uses American spelling ad it seems like an awful lot of work for the UK publisher to change it for not a lot of benefit because I don't think most people care a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embrisk Posted October 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2018 @CrazyRioter It doesn't really take a whole lot of effort. It's probably got to be the easiest edit you can do to a book, because all you need to do is get the computer to run through, looking for specific words and change them. gray = grey honor = honour color = colour etc. I think they did that with Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone when they turned it into american english. And that was with a book that didn't have a magic system that revolved around aluminium, colour, honour, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrikerEZ Posted October 12, 2018 Report Share Posted October 12, 2018 @Servillius Okay, I can understand being upset with gray and aluminum because grey looks cooler and aluminium is the proper way to spell it and American are just stupid in that regard. But color and honor, really? I just don’t understand why you would ever add a ‘u’ to those words. It doesn’t change the pronunciation at all, and it just looks weird. Do you want us to start spelling all words that end in ‘or’ with ‘our’? Obligatour? Misdemeanour? Acceleratour? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RShara Posted October 12, 2018 Report Share Posted October 12, 2018 (edited) Actually, alumia was the original spelling. He then changed it to aluminum, and then finally to aluminium. Some dictionaries had it one way and others had it the other way for quite a while, and when it was actually able to be mass-produced, the -um ending is what was published during that time. So don't blame the US for that one! http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm Brandon's an American writer, writing in a non-British area, so I'm not sure why he should be spelling things the British method? Edited October 12, 2018 by RShara 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calderis Posted October 12, 2018 Report Share Posted October 12, 2018 (edited) Getting hung up on regional spells means your not paying attention to the important Cosmere tidbits. Language is constantly shifting and evolving. Spelling changes. Irregardless is unfortunately a recognized word. None of it matters. Gimme my Cosmere. Edited October 12, 2018 by Calderis 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embrisk Posted October 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2018 (edited) @StrikerEZ I don't care how you spell words in America. I hope you didn't think I wanted Americans to spell words in America a certain way. That wasn't the point. Edited October 12, 2018 by Servillius Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRioter Posted October 12, 2018 Report Share Posted October 12, 2018 Brandon is an American writing in the US. He will write things using American spelling because that's how those words are spelled in the US. If the UK publisher wanted to change it for books printed in the UK they could, but they didn't chose to do that and that's not Brandon's fault. Complain to the publisher if it bothers you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrikerEZ Posted October 15, 2018 Report Share Posted October 15, 2018 On 10/12/2018 at 8:25 AM, Servillius said: @StrikerEZ I don't care how you spell words in America. I hope you didn't think I wanted Americans to spell words in America a certain way. That wasn't the point. Oh, sorry, that wasn’t what I was trying to say. I was just going on a mini rant about why both British and American English bother me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRioter Posted October 15, 2018 Report Share Posted October 15, 2018 I'm Canadian and I joke about Americans spelling things "wrong" but it's mostly just a joke. I don't really care that much. Most people here use American spellings some of the time anyway even though British spelling is the official spelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embrisk Posted October 16, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2018 hm. I didn't know that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pagliacci Posted October 16, 2018 Report Share Posted October 16, 2018 (edited) I'm from Australia and it does irk me a little but not enough to detract from the experience. What irks me MORE is wondering how I should spell 'Honor/Honour' here on the 17th Shard. Should I spell it the way Brandon does or the correct British/Australian way? I wonder how the audiobooks pronounce Aluminium. Edited October 16, 2018 by Pagliacci Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reckless Reader Posted October 16, 2018 Report Share Posted October 16, 2018 You know, this brings up a strange and convoluted point that's been spinning around my head for a while now. In Stormlight, some of the dialect and language is very world-specific. Sometimes there's a mention of a letter or sound that is clearly part of the Alethi or Thaylen alphabet, but it's English-ized in the actual word or context. Like, at some point, I'm pretty sure Hoid used the word "coin" in the Stormlight Archive, which would be utterly untranslateable in Alethi, since they don't have, and never have had, coins. It led me to think that maybe it's always best to read things in their original language, so as to appreciate the nuances of whatever specific words or grammar it contains. Then I remembered that this is not Tolkien and I can't learn seven Cosmere languages because they don't exist. TL;DR: I go way too deep into the worldbuilding. In regards to the actual topic, I'm fine with American spellings in American-published books, but it bugs me if books originally published in the UK have American spellings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borio Singaldi Posted October 16, 2018 Report Share Posted October 16, 2018 You wanna talk about irksome spelling in books? How about the title of the first Harry Potter book, where "Philosopher" was mistakenly written being spelled as "Sorcerer" in the American version? Typos, really. Smh 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scion of the Mists Posted October 16, 2018 Report Share Posted October 16, 2018 2 hours ago, Reckless Reader said: You know, this brings up a strange and convoluted point that's been spinning around my head for a while now. In Stormlight, some of the dialect and language is very world-specific. Sometimes there's a mention of a letter or sound that is clearly part of the Alethi or Thaylen alphabet, but it's English-ized in the actual word or context. Like, at some point, I'm pretty sure Hoid used the word "coin" in the Stormlight Archive, which would be utterly untranslateable in Alethi, since they don't have, and never have had, coins. It led me to think that maybe it's always best to read things in their original language, so as to appreciate the nuances of whatever specific words or grammar it contains. Then I remembered that this is not Tolkien and I can't learn seven Cosmere languages because they don't exist. TL;DR: I go way too deep into the worldbuilding. In regards to the actual topic, I'm fine with American spellings in American-published books, but it bugs me if books originally published in the UK have American spellings. Hoid's (and other worldhoppers) slip-ups are added intentionally by Brandon as a clue that they're using magical means of translations. It's one of the main ways we can pick up on who the worldhoppers are. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embrisk Posted October 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2018 Ah, I didn't know that. It makes sense, though, because I remember being confused when I read Hoid's 'insult' / 'inslut' comment, because they weren't supposed to be speaking english. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scion of the Mists Posted October 17, 2018 Report Share Posted October 17, 2018 10 hours ago, Servillius said: Ah, I didn't know that. It makes sense, though, because I remember being confused when I read Hoid's 'insult' / 'inslut' comment, because they weren't supposed to be speaking english. In addition to the worldhopper-cluing that's going on, Brandon's conceit is that someone is translating the fantasy language into a real world language, attempting to preserve the puns, etc. Quote Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] So, when there's wordplay in the Stormlight Archives, we know they aren't speaking English, so are you to assume that that is a translation of the... Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] This is what Tolkein said, and I always rely upon this. You're reading the book in translation, and the person translating it is going to try to use the closest in feel, but to also make it translate to English. So even when they use idioms and things like that, sometimes they translate and the translator can drop them in. Sometimes they just don't translate, so the translator comes up with something that works in English. It gets you a lot of loopholes, like if you accidentally call something an ottoman and people are like, "But there's not an Ottoman Empire in this fantasy world!" But you're like, "Yeah, all words work that way." It's in translation. This is why when you read something like Allomancy, and they're like, "Well, it's got Latin roots, right?" Yeah, it's just the root's in their language would be something old Terris, and the easiest way to convey that feeling is to use something that's got... you know. Stuff like that. source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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