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The Harry Potter books I read as a kid used American spelling.
by booleandilemma 7y ago
The Harry Potter books I read as a kid used American spelling.
- jfk13 7y agoYes, there was a separate American edition. (Even the title of the first volume was changed: the original "philosopher's stone" became "sorcerer's stone" for the US market.)
- toyg 7y agoSometimes I wonder if the editing world is arbitrarily building barriers in order to justify its continuous existence.
- dragonwriter 7y agoIn the case of HP1, the title difference was based on the perception that the alchemical reference in the original title would be less evocative in the American youth market and “sorceror’s stone” would convey the intended idea better to that audience due to cultural difference. I don't know if test marketing or focus groups were involved in that judgement, but I wouldn't be surprised.
- aitchnyu 7y agoIn India, the book has "Philosopher's" and the movie has "Sorcerer's". I learned only recently America had "Sorcerer" in both book and movie, I thought the Americans renamed only the movie.
- knight17 7y agoThe American editions make some changes, such as: car park -> parking lot, lot -> bunch, dustbin -> trashcan, punch-bag -> punching bag, sellotape -> scotch tape, cinema -> movies, post -> mail, trolley -> cart, queuing -> lining up. See https://www.hp-lexicon.org/edits-changes-text-ps/ https://www.hp-lexicon.org/edits-changes-text-ps/ for more
- mac01021 7y agoWhy would they do that? Just to deny us the experience of reading genuine UK English? I feel deceived.
- taneq 7y agoIt seems patronising to Americans. They even renamed The Philosophers’ Stone to The Sorcerors’ Stone because they thought ‘philosopher’ was too complicated.
- astura 7y agoIt's called "localization" and it's done to make the book more accessible for people unfamiliar with foreign spellings and phrases.