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Resource : Handy article on US English vs UK English
Thread poster: Erudites
Erudites
Erudites  Identity Verified
Local time: 20:37
Danish to English
+ ...
Mar 26, 2012

Found interesting and useful article for British English and US English localization. Thought, it might be useful for the fellow translators!

Part 1 -
See more
Found interesting and useful article for British English and US English localization. Thought, it might be useful for the fellow translators!

Part 1 -
http://www.search-articles.com/2012/03/us-vs-uk-english.html


Part 2 -

http://www.search-articles.com/2012/03/british-vs-american-english.html



[Edited at 2012-03-26 15:16 GMT]

[Edited at 2012-03-26 15:22 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
Lesley Clarke
Lesley Clarke  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 09:07
Spanish to English
Lovely Mar 26, 2012

Many thanks Erudites
 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 17:07
Spanish to English
+ ...
That's handy Mar 26, 2012

However, as a British English speaker, I can't help wishing that just once I could come across a site or article about this issue that didn't invariably come down on the side of US English hegemony. I'm fed up with finding my spellings and usage described as "variants"...
 
Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 16:07
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Poor grammar! Mar 27, 2012

It would have been nicer if the article had been written in good English, of either variety. It's full of grammar mistakes - plural verb with singular subject, and vice-versa, for example! When writing about the use of a language, surely care over grammar is a key point.
Picky Jenny
 
Michael Wetzel
Michael Wetzel  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 17:07
German to English
OK Mar 27, 2012

Hello Erudites,

Thanks for the link. It contains some good information. However, this is also a prime example of a case where the faulty English of the author really calls the interest of the whole text into question. In combination with this, the lack of any references to concrete sources becomes a major problem.
Still, it is nice to see someone taking this issue seriously in the internet and not just gathering a list of false friends like "pants" or waxing philosophical abou... See more
Hello Erudites,

Thanks for the link. It contains some good information. However, this is also a prime example of a case where the faulty English of the author really calls the interest of the whole text into question. In combination with this, the lack of any references to concrete sources becomes a major problem.
Still, it is nice to see someone taking this issue seriously in the internet and not just gathering a list of false friends like "pants" or waxing philosophical about the appropriate US equivalent for "wanker".

One basic problem: -ize and -ise spellings are both British English. Double and single quotation marks are both British English. Read a newspaper and then read an academic publication (or take a look at Guardian and MHRA style)!
They mention but then miss the significance of the tricky case of license/licence (both are UK = verb form vs. noun form ... US = always license)... Or of program/disk in an IT context in the UK, which maintain their US spelling and are thus essentially treated as borrowed foreign expressions.
The authors also introduce a number of variants that are irrelevant for anyone writing/editing in either language (the fact that dictionaries state that these variants are theoretically not incorrect does not mean that they are acceptable for use by professional, non-literary writers).
The dates are another interesting example: I would never list a date without writing out the month (or at least abbreviating it in the case of a table). Otherwise, misunderstandings are unavoidable: knowing the difference in form is of little use if translators lack the common sense to make sure that their readers can understand what they are writing.

Sincerely,
Michael ▲ Collapse
 


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Resource : Handy article on US English vs UK English






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