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This blog is written in en-GB

· 24 comments · 450 words · Viewed ~7,213 times

Someone left a comment on my blog recently asking if I'd mind making my language more inclusive. They didn't get some of the cultural references I'd used and suggested it would be easier if I used tropes which were more globally known.

Here's the thing. No.

All my blog posts start with a simple declaration:

 HTML<!doctype html>
<html lang=en-GB>

There's a reason for that. It is more than the language I speak; it is the culture I live in, the way that I think, and the accent I use.

When your AI bot reads this text aloud, it should do so with a British accent0. That's how I speak. It is OK to hear a slightly unfamiliar accent. You'll be able to figure out what I'm saying. Your world won't collapse if I don't start each sentence with "Howdy, y'all!"

But what should you do if you come across a concept you don't understand?

When The Wicked Witch of the TERFs released the first Harry Potter book "Philosopher's Stone", it was published in the USA with a different title; "Sorcerer's Stone". There were also a dozen other language changes - which caused great consternation in the fandom.

What do you think happens if Skip or Madison come across a kid eating "a sherbet lemon" or a description of Hermione's "fringe" or discover Harry wearing a jumper? Will their little minds collapse under the knowledge that people far away use different words?

No. And neither will you.

It is OK if things are unfamiliar to you.

Up until my mid-twenties, I had never seen or eaten a Twinkie. They were a cultural lodestone in a hundred books and films, but not the sort of thing I could buy locally. So I used my context clues. They seemed like an unappealing foodstuff which, nevertheless, were inexplicably popular.

As a kid, I could recite all the lyrics to Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby without getting half the references. The brain is malleable and can fit in new concepts with relative ease.

So if you see a reference to Count Duckula, or hear me exclaim "Accrington Stanley!", or even blush as I describe an utter wanker - please take it as a sign that the hegemony is not universal and some people exist in a cultural milieu different to your own.

And breathe. It'll be OK.

  1. OK, accents are a whole can of worms. Regional English is varied. I'm not sure if there are any BCP-style tags for intra-country accents. ↩︎

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24 thoughts on “This blog is written in en-GB”

  7. @Edent I always enjoy reading/listening to non-US English speakers. Possibly a result of reading LotR too much as a kid (consistently have to remember to spell gray as an American not as a fan of Gandalf the Grey). Accents are fun, especially mixed. Favorite so far: Aussie-RP from a guy who taught ESL to aboriginals. I can pick him out in a crowded conference lobby every time.

    Reply | Reply to original comment on ruby.social

  9. What a very strange and self centred thing for someone to ask you to do with your personal blog. They should have their nipple nuts spun and be sent to Alaska for even suggesting such a thing.

    Reply

  11. @Edent Love this!

    I think we native English speakers (especially Americans like me) don't celebrate the variations of our language enough.

    In America alone, there's so many different kinds of English!

    And then beyond the Anglosphere, there's a whole constellation of different people and cultures that speak English that we don't recognize, but who have just as much claim to the language as we do.

    I wanna see blogs in en-BZ (Belize), en-GH (Ghana), and en-MY (Malaysia) too!

    Reply | Reply to original comment on jawns.club

    1. @saruwine @blog sure, one is puzzled. But if only used once (which means it's probably not essential in the wider context) I wouldn't look it up - that'd interrupt the flow of interpretation of the wider text.

      If an unknown word keeps popping up its context will provide some sort of working definition ("twinkie" in the blogpost, as an example). That's how all of us learn new words.

      Being aware of the country/cultural context of the author of a text may be helpful in some circumstances. As a non-native English speaker who reads texts in all sorts of englishes (probably not a dictionary word, but you still know what I mean) and other languages, encountering unfamiliar words, jargon, or cultural specific references is the name of the game. Vive la differance.

      Reply | Reply to original comment on c.im

  13. @Edent As a German living in France and writing (somehow en-GB) #English as a foreign language, I like your answer!

    In times of #LLMSlop, we need even more human #writing embedded in different cultures, experiences, and history. This is what I like: With all these different shades of "English-whatever" we can learn more about the fascinating #diversity of our world!

    #languages #languageLearning

    diversityenglishlanguagelearninglanguagesllmslopwriting

    Reply | Reply to original comment on mastodon.online

  21. One surprise I had when living in the US as an Englishman is discovering that in many cases in the US the responsibility of understanding in conversation is felt by the speaker rather than the listener.

    I would be (politely) blamed for not being understood, as if the plain US accent had some form of moral authority of correctness. Even from people who were seemingly well-intentioned.

    Personally I strongly dislike when non-US Anglophones speak in a lowest common denominator way, as I find it constrains much of the fun of the English language.

    Reply

  22. Outstanding. I'm from the southern US, and I deal with the same thing. Your position is great: If you find yourself in unfamiliar territory, that doesn't automatically make it bad, it's just unfamiliar. The world does not have to adjust to you, you must adjust to the world, or don't - it doesn't matter, but don't expect others to change just because you feel uncomfortable.

    Reply

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