I'm disproportionately annoyed (ok, ridiculously enraged) by the change from "large tawny owl" to "large, tawny owl". The tawny owl is a species, which makes that comma as out of place as if it the phrase were "a large, owl". That comma is hurting my eyes. Ow ow ow.

For example (and my horror at the time) the past tense of learn is learnt.

Fowler's accepts both learned and learnt (and they can be pronounced the same when used as a pp.).

they can be pronounced the same when used as a pp

Really? I've always pronounced them differently (three pronounciations now that I think of it: learnt, learnd, and learnéd).

Really? I've always pronounced them differently (three pronounciations now that I think of it: learnt, learnd, and learnéd).

Again, according to Fowler's: Learnéd is only when used as an adjective. In the past tense, the pronounciation is either learnt or learnd--but always monosyllabic.

Huh. Elizabeth Enright's uncle was Frank Lloyd Wright.

In the past tense, the pronounciation is either learnt or learnd--but always monosyllabic.

I just had no idea that learnt and learned were ever pronounced the same.

I just had no idea that learnt and learned were ever pronounced the same.

they're not. At least not with my English friends. I asked a bunch of people because I just couldn't believe that it was correct.

I just had no idea that learnt and learned were ever pronounced the same.

Well, Fowler's is generally pretty thorough on these things.

I assume that some people pronounce it with a "t" sound just because they've seen the -t spelling. Or it's a regional/class thing.

I just had no idea that learnt and learned were ever pronounced the same.

Uh, with some of the accents around here they are.

Making a book more appealing to a larger population with minor vocabulary tweaks just strikes me as a variant on translation.

Well, yes. It's a variant on translation which doesn't actually open a text up to people who would otherwise be unable to access it, but instead saves children from having to grapple with the disturbing notion that normal people - people they can like, care about, feel emotionally invested in - live in a culture that is not quite the same as their own. That ordinariness is subjective, and the things they take for granted aren't the only, or even the most common, trappings of everyday life.

Pretending that people in other countries are exactly like oneself isn't actually all that much more helpful than pretending that they're evil and incomprehensible, and I think this bowdlerization process is symptomatic of a profoundly depressing attitude to otherness.

If the minor - but real - differences between the UK and the US are deemed too difficult and confusing to try to recognise or understand, and are airbrushed into bland familiarity, then there's precious little hope of recognising or understanding the much larger differences of lifestyle and outlook that seperate the US from most other places.

eta

Ooh, the link to the actual changes made in the first book is very interesting. Thanks for that.

I'm a bit gobsmacked that the US text went out of its way to inject a brand new line that established Dean's skin colour during the sorting. Huh.