I've finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and one the thing that caught my attention the most was the editing out of British-isms... or rather, the almost total lack thereof. This book was significantly less Americanized than the last four, and although I was mostly able to figure things out by context, there were times I had no idea what someone was saying.
At first, I assumed that this was hasty editing, in an attempt to get it out the door and into the hands of the impatient masses as soon as possible. The more I think about it, though, the more convinced I am that it's a sinister plot. Think about it... the Brits have a totally unprecedented chance to get vast amounts of British slang into American usage, even more so than at the height of Beetle-mania, since many readers are impressionable children, and the books are way more language-intensive than song lyrics. So they're leaving as much British English as possible in the books, well aware that every word will be branded into the memories of the millions of Harry/Ron/Hermione wannabes. Finally they have a chance to fight back against our perversion of English, and they are seizing it. It's brilliant. It's insidious.
I suppose I should be outraged... but frankly, I'm not all that fussed.
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