In what language(s) do you read? US or UK English, or....?

[Austin]

I am from India and I read books only in English. My vocabulary in Indian languages is not that good, apart from words used in day to day confabulations. I was more interested in the English language as a kid and neglected native vocabulary. I prefer UK and Indian English though I end up reading mostly US English books. Most of the English writers are from the US. That's why. Lol

[Papaphilly]

Austin wrote: "I am from India and I read books only in English. My vocabulary in Indian languages is not that good, apart from words used in day to day confabulations. I was more interested in the English langua..."

Is English that dominate in India that you do not have to communicate in an Indian dialect?

[Ed]

Austin wrote: "I am from India and I read books only in English. ..."

Which is your native language?
Have you tried SF books by Indian authors who write in English, like Samit Basu or Saad Hossain?

[Joe]

Hi Rosemarie,
Pretty much in the middle, near Frankfurt.

[Steven]

I read either UK and US. There are writers I like from both countries.

[Austin]

Papaphilly wrote: "Austin wrote: "I am from India and I read books only in English. My vocabulary in Indian languages is not that good, apart from words used in day to day confabulations. I was more interested in the..."

Both English and local languages are used in schools, colleges, universities and offices. Though people engaged in blue collar jobs usually don't speak English. India is ranked 5th in English proficiency amongst Asian countries, only behind Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and South Korea.

[Austin]

Ed wrote: "Austin wrote: "I am from India and I read books only in English. ..."

Which is your native language?
Have you tried SF books by Indian authors who write in English, like Samit Basu ..."

My native language is Tamil. It's spoken in parts of Southern India.
I havent't read any science fiction books by Indians. I didn't know Indians also write SF. Usually Indian authors don't venture into this genre. Lol

[Bionic Jean]

Great question!

I'm English, and read far more English books than American ones. I do read books in translation though, and recently have read books by Japanese, Swedish and Vietnamese authors (although that one was written in English!) I've also just read a book by an Australian author. I find the translations are often into American English.

Most of the American books I read are Science Fiction. I love classic English Science Fiction, but do often find the authors I pick up are American, which always surprises me! I should know by now.

[Steven]

Stanislaw Lem claims to have read and understood English, yet could not understand a word of spoken English.

[Peter]

Austin wrote: "India is ranked 5th in English proficiency amongst Asian countries, only behind Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and South Korea"

Interesting that Korea ranks so high. From all the US servicemen during/after the Korean War, DY think? If there is a native Korean speaker here, perhaps they will hold forth..

India of course was a British colony since, well, forever. Singapore & Malaya of shorter duration. The PI took up English among the educated classes following the American occupation around the turn of the 20th C. So India's #5 standing seems anomalously low.

[Peter]

Oh, and I am a USA-ian, but can read UK english, including various dialects thereof. Including C. Stross's amusing dog speaking (app) Yorkshire English, in "Rogue Farm"! And various other English-extrapolations Stross has concocted in his long career. His pal Ken MacLeod has a liking for that game, too. As did the late lamented Cultures guy, whose name is momentarily escaping me.... RIP ♰ IM Banks You're missed!

[Sabri]

Peter wrote: "Austin wrote: "India is ranked 5th in English proficiency amongst Asian countries, only behind Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and South Korea""

Must be a lot of factors involved here - length of occupation, demographic complexity, proportion of rural vs urban, recent modernisation etc...

Peter wrote: "Oh, and I am a USA-ian, but can read UK english, including various dialects thereof... RIP ♰ IM Banks You're missed!"

I never thought of Banks as someone that plays with dialects, although I do recall Feersum Endjinn has that phonetic styling, and Complicity perhaps has a nod to the Scottish accent. One good test for spoken English dialects is whether you can understand the opening scene of "Kes" by director Ken Loach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdGFW...

[Bionic Jean]

That's my accent! (but not so broad). I explain in MY REVIEW here of the book A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines, on which "Kes" was based.

A softer version is used by the current Doctor Who, Jodie Whitaker, who comes from my home city. Surely that's understandable to all? Perhaps it's yours too, Sabri?

[Sabri]

Bionic Jean wrote: "That's my accent! (but not so broad). Perhaps it's yours too, Sabri?"

Sorry to disappoint but I grew up near Portsmouth! The dialect there is like London but with a few added words such as "mush", "squinny" and "dinlo". Interestingly, mush derives from Romani and used to be fairly common in London. You can sometimes hear it in old episodes of Only Fools & Horses or Steptoe & Son, but nowadays it seems to be confined to Pompey.

I love learning about accents and dialects though. At uni I had a friend from Hull with quite a strong accent, who introduced me to words like "skeg" or "breadcake". Also my wife and I listen to a lot of folk music, with e.g. Ewan MacColl singing stuff like "Cannily, cannily, bonny lal bairnikie, divn't tha cry, mah lal pet".

[Bionic Jean]

Your accent sounds interesting Sabri - not sure l could identify that one. Mostly I put vaguely London accents down as "Estuary English" (otherwise known as "cockneyfied R.P.")

[Spad53]

I'm Swedish, and since very little modern SF is translated to Swedish, I only read SF in English, if it's UK or US doesn't matter in the slightest.

[Peter]

Spad53 wrote: "I'm Swedish, and since very little modern SF is translated to Swedish, I only read SF in English, if it's UK or US doesn't matter in the slightest."

There are more regional accents/dialects in the US, and more in fantasy/SF versions of same. Such as the late Fritz Leiber delightful "Space-Time for Springers", where the MC, a lively and VERY intelligent kitten, knows he will grow up to be a Prince when Old Horsemeat & Kitty-come-here, his human attendants, sit him down to drink the Elixir of Human Speech.... I certainly won't spoil it for you, even though this 1958 story is likely older than half of the audience here today. Here's an online copy: https://docplayer.net/36218564-Space-... "Gummitch was a superkitten, as he knew very well, with an I. Q. of about 160. Of course, he didn’t talk. .... " And I see the "secret" is given away in the next couple of lines. My favorite Leiber, and one of my 100 favorite SF/F stories of all time! Go ahead and re-read now, or save it for next time you need a fast-acting sense-of-wonder recharge! Heck, you can do both!

[Sabri]

Peter wrote: "Spad53 wrote: "I'm Swedish...""

There are more regional accents/dialects in the US..."

There's a comparable number of regional dialects in the UK as there are in the US, in fact the UK possibly slightly tips it according to how you count the variations on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... .

The UK may be small but it's had a long time to entrench some pretty stark variations!

However, I'd agree that UK's SF does not tend to contain much of these.

[Ed]

Sabri wrote: "UK's SF does not tend to contain much of these. .."

But there is always But n Ben A-Go-Go, the only SF novel I know of in Scots.

[Spad53]

Peter wrote: "Spad53 wrote: "I'm Swedish, and since very little modern SF is translated to Swedish, I only read SF in English, if it's UK or US doesn't matter in the slightest."

There are more regional accents/..."

I like Fritz Leiber and I love cats, so I'm going to get that onto my kindle fairly immediately. After slogging through most of Game of thrones no.1 , I need a change. GoT is very good, but rather depressing a lot of the time.

[Spad53]

Sabri wrote: "Peter wrote: "Spad53 wrote: "I'm Swedish...""

There are more regional accents/dialects in the US..."

There's a comparable number of regional dialects in the UK as there are in the US, in fact the..."

I don't think it's been mentioned in this thread yet, but Great North Road has people talking with strange Newcastle slang. I saw some reviews that didn't like it, it didn't bother me. I liked Great North Road a lot.

[Oleksandr]

Spad53 wrote: "but Great North Road has people talking with strange Newcastle slang. I saw some reviews that didn't like it, it didn't bother me. I liked Great North Road a lot."

I've liked it too, and as for a slang I cannot recall it, but with English being my non-native I often can mistake slang for just a larger vocabulary :) in both cases Io need to check what this or that means

[Spad53]

Well I wouldn't know a Newcastle dialect if I heard it, but the book started there, so I guessed that was what it was supposed to be!

[Steven]

Try Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad, it’s rife with slang. Or Void Captain’s Tale which I didn’t care for it. Got impatient when tried reading it.

[William]

I read books in both British English and American English (which I also include Canadian dialects). I grew up in Hawaii, which has its own dialect, so I find reading books to be a great way of picking up different dialects and idioms.

So much that when I watch UK programs, I can usually track what the characters are meaning in their dialogue, even with thick regional accents. Then when I read books written in those dialects, I can hear the voice of the character more clearly.

[Ryan]

Peter wrote: "Austin wrote: "India is ranked 5th in English proficiency amongst Asian countries, only behind Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and South Korea"

Interesting that Korea ranks so high. From all the ..."

I've lived in Korea. There's a pretty big gap between 3rd and 4th - Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia speak much better English on average than Korea. Everyone below Malaysia is relatively lower.

It's quite possible to get a good English education in Korea, but not from the public schools, which do a poor job. Many kids attend private academies after school, which is essential for fluency.

It has nothing to do with US servicemen, and everything to do with Korea's relative affluence and desire for English aptitude (it's required to get a good score on SATs and even for some job applications).

[Ryan]

I read both US and UK English, and though I'm American I now have a fairly large UK vocabulary.

Besides Harry Potter, are there many other books that have been localized for a specific version of English? I get the sense that there aren't, aside from cover art.

[Stephen]

I’m Canadian. The books on the store shelves here include both American and British editions. I have no idea how this works legally.
I always disliked the American habit of changing British titles for marketing reasons and thought it amounted to dumbing them down. Another example from John Wyndham is The Chrysalids, re-titled as Re-Birth. As a Canadian I did make some effort to learn French and read a few novels with a teacher back in the 1990s, but these days I rarely read much in French.

[Thomas]

Stephen: Amen on retitling. My worst example: C. S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength to The Tortured Planet.

[Sabri]

They told us at school (in the UK) that the film adaptation of Alan Bennett's play "The madness of George III" was retitled "The madness of King George" in order not to confuse American audiences who would think it was a sequel.

It turns out this is not wholly true: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the...

Sometimes it feels like adult life is a gradual process of undoing or refining all the wrong bits of information carried over from school.

For an example in the reverse direction, Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" was apparently titled "Tiger! Tiger!" when it took a jaunt to the UK. I don't think it's been published as that for a while, though.

[Koray]

I know Turkish,English and German and I read in all 3 languages.

[Spad53]

Thats useful, I do English and Swedish. You more or less have to read English here, so little SF is translated.