Wednesday, April 9, 2014

An Aer Error

Todays typo had me Rowling on the floor laughing. Well, not really, but I couldnt pass up the opportunity to open with a groan-inducing pun.

It doesnt take a Hogwarts education to spot the error. A hint, for the Muggles: The writer cast a bad spell in the penultimate sentence.

J.K. Rowling is a British novelist who, naturally, uses British English spellings. Our theater is her theatre, our center becomes her centre, and so on. The -re at the end of are, however, remains the same on either side of the pond. No aer American English variation exists, which is why the writer crashed and burned with this aerial display.

For the Potter books to be truly compatible with e-readers, we must maneuver that -er so its -re. In Britain, our maneuver would be a manoeuvre.

No comments:

Post a Comment