differences between the British and American publications.

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 160603

Heather:
> Does anyone know why there were (albeit slight) differences in
> the text of the British and American publications of the books?
  
> These differences consisted mainly of the way phrases were worded.
>  
>  
Donna responded:
> Finally a question that's easy to answer - because of the subtle
differences between British English and American English.
> 

Carol adds:
More specifically, the changes exist because the British and American
editions of the HP books are copyedited separately, by different
people working for different publishers (Bloomsbury and Scholastic). 

A book does not go directly from manuscript to print. One crucial step
in the process is copyediting (different from proofreading, which
occurs after the book is set in print). Copyeditors in general are
responsible for eliminating typographical and mechanical errors in the
manuscript, making sure that spelling and capitalization of names and
terms peculiar to the book or series are consistent, changing the
passsive voice to the active voice where applicable, and, sometimes
(too rarely in the case of the HP books, IMO), correcting loose or
faulty sentence structure, such as dangling or misplaced modifiers ("a
pretty girl in a blue dress that Harry didn't know"!!!). I could point
out errors in the American editions that should have been caught and
corrected by the copyeditor, such as "miniscule" for "minuscule" in
SS, but whether they also occur in the British editions, I can't say. 

In addition to the usual copyediting duties, the American copyeditor 
has to change British spelling and punctuation, and, to some degree,
British words and expressions to American equivalents. For example,
"pot plant" is changed to "potted plant" in PoA so that American kids
won't think Hannah Abbott is suggesting that Sirius Black can change
himself into a marijuana plant. "Toilet" is changed rather
inaccurately in some or all of the books to "bathroom" (it ought to be
"restroom" since no bathtubs or showers are involved) because we
Americans are so squeamish about bodily functions--or because we
distinguish between the toilet as an object and the room that contains
it. (Steve gave another example upthread of a phrase that's innocuous
in British English but sounds obscene to American ears. No need to
repeat it here.) 

In the early books, especially the first one, the publisher was afraid
that American children wouldn't be able to figure out or relate to
certain terms and expressions such as "philosopher's stone," "Mum,"
and "jumper," so they were changed to "sorceror's stone," "Mom," and
"sweater," respectively. The American copyeditor is now stuck with
"sorceror's stone" when references are made to that object in later
books, so he or she had to invent a mispronunciation ("sorcerous
stone") to match Neville's mispronunciation of "philosopher's stone"
in the British edition (or manuscript) of OoP. Fortunately, however,
the Weasley jumpers are no longer sweaters and the Weasley kids no
longer call their mother "Mom."

Other differences, such as the order of the "echoes" coming out of
Voldemort's wand in GoF or the presence or absence of "never" in
Fudge's "I've [never] heard of a curse scar acting as an alarm bell
before" in GoF apparently result from one copyeditor catching and
correcting an error that the other didn't catch, or possibly from an
error by one but not the other copyeditor that JKR didn't catch. (In
theory, changes of that sort should be queried by the copyeditor and
accepted or rejected by the author.) The American copyeditor has Miss
Fawcett as a Ravenclaw and her boyfriend Stebbins as a Hufflepuff in
GoF; the British edition has it the other way around. (I suspect that
the American copyeditor is right; either that or there are two Miss
Fawcetts in different Houses, and the Miss Fawcett who grows a beard
from the age line is a different person from the one chased out of the
rosebushes by Snape. Not that it's important, but I like consistency
and accuracy.)

I can't account for the massive snipping of Dumbledore's speech to
Draco about the DEs not being able to kill him if he's already dead
except to suggest that JKR asked her British editors to cut the lines
because they gave too much away but forgot to make the same request of
the editors at Scholastic. I can't imagine a copyeditor (or any other
type of editor) inserting such a speech without permission. It simply
isn't done. The change has to be Rowling's own idea.

In summary, the reason for the differences is that the publishers have
(at least two) different people, under different sets of instructions,
doing the copyediting. The publishers and the copyeditors are aiming
at different audiences with different ideas of correct spelling and
punctuation and different vocabularies. (Incidentaly, some expressions
that sound ordinary to British ears sound "foreign" or exotic to
American ears and give a British flavor to the books that American
kids can savor, and I'm glad that Scholastic has decided to leave most
of them in. I don't expect them to start using the term "snogging" any
time soon, however!)

Carol, who sometimes has to "translate" British to American English in
her copyediting projects (in addition to the usual job requirements)
and thinks she should be paid extra for her trouble!