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[–]TangerineRabbit 32 insightful - 1 fun32 insightful - 0 fun33 insightful - 1 fun -  (13 children)

I already had the books in English, so bought a copy of Philosopher's Stone in Irish translation as I'm trying to learn that language. Wanted to make a point of showing support

[–]Amareldys 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (12 children)

I have them in American English, I should buy them in the original. And FRench and German.

[–]lavender_menace 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

There is a difference between American English and British English? They translate books for US citizens? Mindblowing!

[–]malleus_maleficarum 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

The British use the Queen's 'u'. Honour/honor. Neighbour/neighbor. Etc. The Americans threw that 'u' into Boston harbour/harbor and never got it back. Some words like biscuit would be changed to convey the original meaning. Some slang like 'loo' is only British.

[–]marmorsymphata 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah I was really upset when I found out! For example, Dudley's first word is supposed to be "Shan't!", not "Won't!"

[–]Amareldys 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes for words like Soccer and Lift

[–]Sineadsiobhan 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think only the first, in the US edition, book has American English In terms of the words, not spelling differences. I think she said she wasn’t going to change anything in the later books. I may be wrong.

[–]bellatrixbells 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Wow. Just... Wow.

I'm not sure if this means Americans are supposed to be too dense to figure out foreign slang or if they're just too lazy or self centered. None of those interpretations give them much credit. That's just plain sad.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

There are grammatical differences too. I think parents in America didn’t want to deal with the differences because kids that age are still learning the language technically.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Pfffff. I speak Canadian English, Northern Ontario variety which includes plenty of French of the Northern Ontario variety.

At eleven I read LOTR and Narnia (and a bunch more books) that were English English; come to think of it, many many library books were American English.

All of it improved my vocabulary and made me curious about language. Why were my spelling words mostly like the English English but my grammar was more like American English? That was fun for me!

I remember when HP first came out, hubs and I who both grew up with LOTR (he's Chinese and got through it fine) rolled our eyes hard at the idea there needed to be an American translation!

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I mean I read it in both. I didn’t care. But that’s the reason I was given as to why they had different books for US.

[–]bellatrixbells 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The US is pretty ethnocentric. Personally I think it's sad because I've met many Americans throughout the years who just felt shitty about this. The French do that too though.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Interesting! Having read neither I don't really know. Thanks for your perspective!