linguistic puzzlers

[kindkit]

I'm reading John Le Carré's latest, A Delicate Truth, and I'm finding a lot of what look like Americanisms in the text. It's bugging me because I don't know if (a) some language was changed for the American edition, (b) it's just that American expressions increasingly creep into British English, or (c) Le Carré is using them deliberately to make points about his characters.

If the text was Americanized by the US publisher, it's been done very inconsistently. On the one hand, "pants" is used in the American sense (Br.Eng. = trousers); on the other, "fairy lights" is left untranslated.

Have I mentioned that I hate it when British books are Americanized by US publishers? I am not a ten-year-old reading Harry Potter; I'm not going to put the book down in frustration if I encounter an unfamiliar phrase.

Does anyone know if US books are Anglicized/Australianized for those markets? Or is US cultural hegemony strong enough that they're left unchanged even though the reverse isn't true?

Comments

[likeadeuce]

Is there a possible confusion between rugby and football? I remember the rugby references, but the soccer ones confused me.

[hagsrus]

Well, there's rugby football (rugger) and association football (soccer) so if there's any question about which game is being discussed the specific term might be used, especially in an area where one is prevalent.

Usually, though, "football" is understood to be association.

I guess getting hold of the British editions for comparison, or asking a British reader to check, is probably the only way to be sure!

[likeadeuce]

Oh, that does make sense, thanks!

Learn something new everyday :)