Two English Languages

 

Actually, there are many more than two English languages. American English is different than British English is different than Australian English, and so on. Even within countries such as the U.S. there are many different dialects. But for this post I’ll limit myself to the more generic American English and British English.

My current work-in-progress takes place in England during World War II. As I mentioned in my last post, I’m writing it in the form of a newspaper column. And since it is written by an English woman for an English newspaper, of course it will use British English.

That creates another challenge that I’m working through.

Some differences between American English and British English are well known, such as the British use of biscuit for what we would call a cookie. But did you know that a railroad is a railway and a thermos is a flask?

I’ve been writing with two dictionaries at hand: The American-British British-American Dictionary for English Speaking People by Jeremy Smith and the 3^rd edition of The UK to USA Dictionary: British English vs. American English by Claudine Dervaes and John Hunter. Every time I’m not sure whether an American term is also used in England, I check those dictionaries. There are two problems with this, however. The first is that I may assume a word is used in England when it is not, in which case I won’t bother to look it up.

The second problem that the dictionaries are written for people who want to understand what they hear or read, not necessarily for writers or educators. So while they are fairly comprehensive, I’m not sure they include everything. If I’m wondering about a term that isn’t in them, I may need to turn elsewhere.

I have been supplementing the dictionaries with a rather unexpected resource. I enjoy the Miss Read books, which take place in England and are written by an English author. (Miss Read is her pen name.) When I wanted to know what a handyman was called in England, I couldn’t find a reference in either of the dictionaries I mentioned above. Although I thought that probably meant that the term handyman is used in British English, I wanted to be as sure as I could be. There is a handyman in a Miss Read book that I recently read on Kindle, so I went into the book and used Kindle’s search function to look for “handyman.” When I found it, I knew I could use that word comfortably. I’ve also used the same resource for several other terms and found it helpful each time.

Still, no matter how hard I try, I’ll probably miss something, and a reader will point out that the British don’t use the American term.

That isn’t the only terminology issue, though. There are times when I may use a uniquely British term when an American one will do, such as using cooker for stove. Still, if I go overboard, I will sound as if I am trying to be British myself or, worse, as if I am mocking the language. So the challenge is to make my character English without overdoing it.

An even bigger challenge comes when I try to write a column that would use British grammar and spelling.

That’s the subject of next week’s blog.