Guardian - 18 January 2018, 20:00 (+ 2478 days 6 hours and 32 minutes) Sci-Tech
Working on UK and US versions of my book made me realise how much living in New York has affected my pronunciationI have lived in the US for 10 years, and although I take the elevator down to the lobby from my apartment, when I go outside I walk on the pavement. My children wear diapers but, by and large, I fill the tank with petrol, not gas, and throw out the rubbish not the trash. I wish I still ate sweets, but I don’t; “sweets” to my ears sound childish and wilfully obscure and, while I may cringe when I say it, there’s no question that if I ask someone to pass me the Skittles, what I’m referring to in that instance is candy.These differences, which have been on my mind as I go through copy edits for the UK and US editions of my book, are something I am probably in control of 70% of the time. It is a peculiarity of being in a foreign country in which the language is ostensibly the same, that it makes one’s pre-immigration self actually seem further away. If I had moved to France, my English would have remained unchanged. As it is, I fear the word “chemist” is lost to me for ever, or at least for the years it would take me to reprogram from “pharmacy”. Continue reading...