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.

Vocabulary and Spelling

 

I just finished a book where a boy whips out his pocket dictionary every time he hears a word he doesn’t understand. I have a great vocabulary, so I don’t need a dictionary for that. And even if I have one, it doesn’t always help.

If a word is spelled phonetically, I can find it. But if it isn’t . . .

Spelling has always been my downfall, the only subject I ever got a D in. (At least not until law school, and that’s another story.) I can’t rely on artificial intelligence, either. The spell-check on Word usually works, but if my spelling is too far off, it doesn’t include the correct choice. Then I’m sunk.

That’s a problem with doing crosswords, too. If I know the answer but misspell it, it can throw everything off.

So here’s my advice to my younger readers: don't make my mistake.

Learn to spell.

The Importance of Context Clues

 

Last week I talked about using context clues to understand the foreign language phrases used in one of my current projects. Knowing how to interpret those clues is important when reading a book, but it is also a necessary life skill. That’s why it’s a skill we should all learn.

As noted in my previous post, I had asked several girls to beta read Not the Enemy, which contains a number German words and phrases. When I asked my readers if there were any words and phrases they couldn’t understand even in context, one of the 3^rd graders listed two, and I can find ways to make both of them more obvious. However, when I asked my beta readers what they liked least about how the story was written, that same third grader said, “I just think there were too many German words and I had to use context clues from other lines.” That indicates to me that she understood most of the foreign words and phrases but didn’t like having to use context clues to interpret them.

While I can, and will, attempt to make some of the clues stronger, I don’t intend to eliminate the German words from the book. Hopefully, the “context clues from other lines” will not only help readers understand the German but will also hone their skills at reading context clues in life as well as in fiction.

Interpreting context clues is an important life skill. Let’s look at a simple example. You’ve just met someone new, and the person says “pleased to meet you.” If the statement is accompanied by a warm smile, you believe that the person really is pleased. If the same words are said in a chilly tone or with a twitching eyebrow, they are probably insincere. That may not matter if the person is a casual acquaintance, but it makes a big difference if you are trying to develop a relationship.

I don’t believe in being overly intellectual in my writing. Sometimes simple and straightforward is best.

But there is also a place for context clues.

Old Time Vocabulary

 

Slang and even formal vocabulary change over time. As a writer of historical fiction, my challenge is to stay true to the period without confusing my readers with words they define differently.

Some slang is practically timeless. “Okay” has been around since at least 1840, and “kids,” as in little children, was in use as long ago as the seventeenth century. Since my characters and my readers have the same understanding as to the meaning of these words, I don’t have to think twice about including them in a manuscript.

Other words aren’t as clear. I ask my middle-grade beta readers whether there are any words they didn’t know and couldn’t figure out from the context. When I got back the evaluation forms for a novel set in 1925, one fourth grader included “fast” on that list. At first, I was confused. Who doesn’t know what that word means? But when I searched the manuscript looking for it, I came across a scene where my protagonist asks her mother if she can get her hair bobbed and the mother responds that short hair makes women look fast. Now I understood the beta reader’s comment, and I found a way to rewrite the scene using language today’s children are more likely to know.

Then there are the slang words that need careful handling. Historically the word “gay” meant cheerful or merry, and all of my characters would have understood it that way. Defined that way, it was in frequent use during the periods covered by my novels, so avoiding it seems a little stilted. But because my readers would give it a different meaning, “gay” doesn’t occur in any of my middle-grade manuscripts.

Then there is the question of when a particular slang word entered the American vocabulary. Would my character have used a particular word at the time of the story? Fortunately, about two years ago I found a used copy of the 3^rd edition of the Dictionary of American Slang by Chapman and Kipfer. If I look up a word, that dictionary may tell me whether it was in use at the time. If it doesn’t have dates, or if the word is not included, then I’ll do an Internet search for “[word] origin.” And if I still can’t figure out when it became popular, I won’t use it.

Writing historical fiction is always a challenge.

But it’s rewarding to get it right.

__________

For more on this subject, you can read my January 25, 2021 and February 1, 2021 blog posts.

Age It Right: Part III

 

This last of the “Age It Right” series was posted on the Indiana Writers’ Consortium blog on August 16, 2017. There will, however, be another post on writing for children next week.

Age It Right: Part III

Vocabulary is an important part of aging a children’s book. There are several resources to guide you on vocabulary level, including Children’s Writers’ Word Book by Alihandra Mogilner and online vocabulary and spelling lists for parents and teachers arranged by grade. Use them.

But don’t rely on them.

First, these lists can’t cover every word in a child’s vocabulary. Just because a word isn’t on the list doesn’t mean your readers won’t know it.

Second, readers want to be challenged. For each of the middle-grade books I have completed so far, I used between six and nine beta readers spread over four grades. I asked them to complete a questionnaire, and here are two of the questions I asked:

Were there any words you didn’t know before but could figure out from the story? If so, write them here.

Were there any words that you didn’t understand unless you looked them up in a dictionary or asked someone older? If so, write them here.

Even though I frequently used words from the fifth and sixth grade lists, the third and fourth grade beta readers listed them in response to the first question rather than the second, indicating that they got the meaning from the text. So don’t let these lists limit you.

While it is important to challenge your readers, it is equally important not to frustrate them. If they have to make frequent trips to the dictionary (or to the kitchen to ask their parents), they’ll put the book down and leave it there.

So how can you challenge without frustrating? The best approach is to use context clues. In my first middle-grade book, Desert Jewels, Emi’s parents tell her to come to the parlor after she finishes washing the dishes. I don’t come right out and tell readers that “parlor” was a common word for living room or what we might now call the family room, but when she got there she found Papa reading a newspaper and Mama knitting a sock and she sat on a piano stool to talk to them (implying the presence of a piano). Other passages explicitly mention the piano in the room and a fancy clock that sits on top of it. The piano and Emi’s parents’ activities while in the parlor help today’s readers understand what the room is.

Then there is the word “spews,” which occurs in a tanka (a type of Japanese poem) that begins the book. It was on one beta reader’s list of words that she had never heard before but could figure out from the context. In this case, it is the words immediately around it that provide the clues:

Hate spews from your lips,
Calling me a “Dirty Jap.”
I don’t understand.
Although I don’t look like you,
I am an American.

Although context clues are the best way to increase a child’s vocabulary, there are rare times when they are not sufficient or when using them makes the passage convoluted or clunky. Desert Jewels tells the story of a Japanese American girl caught up in the anti-Japanese sentiment of World War II. I used some Japanese words for authenticity, but I couldn’t define them by context alone. In some cases the solution was simple—my protagonist didn’t understand them either, so she asked what they meant, and the reader learned along with her. But that approach won’t work if the person asking would already know, so use it sparingly.  

“Oh,” you may say, “I’ll just use a glossary.” Personally, I think that’s a copout. Expecting your readers to leaf back and forth between the story and a glossary is only a little better than sending them to the dictionary. Rely on context clues and a rare question instead.

That said, I did add a short glossary to Desert Jewels because of the Japanese words and some important but now mostly archaic English words and terms used at the time. But it is there to reinforce what the reader learns through context clues and the occasional question, not to replace it.

So when choosing vocabulary, write your story to challenge your readers without frustrating them.