(no subject)

[doyle]

Hmm. Looking through some old BBF discussion and I saw this comment by Gyrus (whose LJ handle I forget, sorry):

(For example, I recently read a fic in which something bad happens and Giles tries to tell Buffy that there was no way she could have anticipated it. She replies, "But I should've done!" That just looks weird to a Yank like me.)

I'm sure I'm guilty of using that myself. Why's it wrong? Should it be 'shoulda' instead of should've?

...any other glaring errors any of you have noticed non-Americans making? Because god knows I could go on for pages in obsessive Brit-picking of both Harry Potter fics and Buffy fics set in England (the language thing I get, but some of the cultural stuff, the 'my character's British so they've never heard of ___' : we do have pizzas and action movies and strange flavours of chips/crisps in Britain and Ireland, I promise you)

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Heh. We have a plural form of you, too (youse rather than y'all). I'm what'd be called a culchie here, I'm from out in the country, so my dialect's more pronounced.

[nikitangel.livejournal.com]

It's funny to imagine you with an Irish accent! Everyone on my flist has an American accent in my head. Even my ex-boyfriend (from England)'s voice has faded into an American accent in my head. I spoke to him on the phone once, and we both commented on how strong the other one's accent had gotten!

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Not sure if you'd hear the difference, but my accent's closer to Scottish than what's normally thought of as Irish. I tried to record a WAV file of myself last week but got too tongue-tied. I hate speaking on answering machines or anything. Also, I sound about 10.

[octopedingenue]

English is so sad without a plural form of "you", I think that "y'all" needs to gain general acceptance. It's so useful! (I'm ignoring the tendency for "y'all", like "vous", to sometimes become a singular noun on its own, which leads to such mutants like "Hey, all y'all c'mover here!"