Comments on: Copy editing & regionalisms

By: Victor

Victor — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:27:52 +0000

Editors, get in line and read this: Trust your writers. STET the whole f***ing thing indeed. It’s a good thing I’m not a writer ’cause being a native of the American South, there would be all kinds of stuff in my manuscripts that a NY editor wouldn’t understand. I sometimes need a translator here in BC. But if I were writing about my home turf or had a Southern character in my book, your can bet your stash of Jack Daniels that I’d have that person talking like a Southerner would really talk, not how an editor might THINK a Southerner ought to talk. Y’all got that?

By: Kim Thacker

Kim Thacker — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:05:09 +0000

When I lived in Baltimore, I heard people saying all kinds of weird things, like, “cut the light on,” instead of “turn the light on.” But I never heard waiting “on line.” It’s fun to talk to people from other regions. I never knew I said strange things until I moved away from my little secluded community in the mountains and started talking about “borrow pits” and “cricks” (roadsides and creeks). Do you think these little oddities can add flavor to a novel? I think that in the case of the “on line” thing you mentioned, that doesn’t add flavor–it’s just weird–but in other circumstances, aren’t the bits of dialect charming? I think of Marmite & Tea’s “queue.” I love it! Very British! Or Deborah Wiles lovely use of regional language (”tuner fish” instead of “tuna fish,” for example, in EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS.).

By: Mamrite and Tea

Mamrite and Tea — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:06:35 +0000

It’s not a line, it’s a queue

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:59:32 +0000

Another thought on the bathroom vs washroom thing. I think Canadians are more prone to say washroom if it is in a public place, maybe a restaurant, or even if you’re asking the location of the facilities in someone else’s house. In one’s own house, I think it’s more likely to be called the bathroom. It’s a bit of a weird distinction, come to think of it.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:55:56 +0000

I grew up in Ontario and now live in New Brunswick, and it’s definitely IN line in both places. Never heard anyone say ON line in my life, unless they are talking about computers!

By: Tomato

Tomato — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:13:02 +0000

I live in New Hampshire and we wait IN line, too. I don’t know about New Yorkers, but it’s definitely not an East Coast thing.