Portal:En-gb
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Hullo, welcome to the British English portal of Touhou Patch Center! Here is mostly the guidelines of how this language code is constructed. There'll be a note on top of each en-gb page about how to translate to en-gb. If you have any questions about this variety in general, please use the discussion page. Thank you :) |
Recent changes
General Information
Basically, this language is English like on the English portal, except that this uses vocabulary, spelling or other word usage that's specifically used in the UK, either formally or informally. This is not used to represent regional-specific English, such as Scottish, Welsh or Cockney, just what can be generally used throughout the UK. The way this works is by looking at English translations and recognise any US-specific vocabulary, grammar, etc., and simply changing it to a British equivalent.
I, TonyUK, pretty much run this portal, as I have contributed majorly to British English. At the time I requested this portal to be created, I was trying to learn the differences between American and British English, to which before then I didn't realise such differences. Having this made me recognise the differences, and today I'd say I have a decent knowledge on the differences, so if there's anything you're unsure about on the differences I may or may not have put onto thpatch, please let me know on this portal's or my talk page.
As it currently stands, approximately 30% of all English translations contains US/UK-specific English.
Language variety policy
The translations in the en language code are fully in American English. To ensure that duplication of content is to a minimum, all en-gb pages only contain the differences between British English and English (American English). Hence, most BrE pages may not be 100% completed (Except for spell card translations). When modifying en-gb, please try to follow British spelling and vocabulary where possible, but don't think too much about it; spelling discrepancies can always be corrected later.
Even though most countries outside America will follow British usage, this language variety may not fit most of peoples needs outside both the UK and US. In case you clearly want to create translations which use spelling or vocabulary from a different variety of English, please use a separate language code for your edits where you put only the differences between American English and your variety. These can then be combined by the end users using the patch stacking feature to form one fully localised translation.
How to Patch en-gb
On the patch, you only need to choose en-gb – just like any other language – to get a full BrE translation; this is because the patcher itself will auto-include en that's got the non-BrE/AmE differences and other necessary patches (See below image).
Guidelines & Trivial Examples
- Only create translation boxes if there's appear to be a difference in spelling, word usage, grammar, etc.
- Grammar may be the hardest part to tackle on tracing the differences because even from a British ear, American grammar sounds and follows quite clearly.
- BrE may not have a direct translation from Japanese in some cases. For instance, 'エレベーター' means 'elevator', but that word isn't used in BrE, so 'lift' has to be used instead.
- There's even a difference in punctuation:
- BrE has the option of using double quotes and single quotes. Traditionally, single quotes were more common than double and are still the primary usage, so ‘smart single quotes’ are used instead (smart for typographic and unique reasons for the patcher).
- Regardless, AmE will almost put punctuation inside quotes "like this," where BrE would do it ‘like this’, unless it is quoting something.
- A serial comma is used all the time in AmE, e.g. ‘<item1>, <item2>, and <item3>’. In BrE, it's ‘<item1>, <item2> and <item3>’ unless to avoid ambiguity.
- AmE uses em dash—like so—whilst BrE uses en dash – like so – in running text.
- If there's a form of American slang on the English side, use British slang that's equivalent.
- Adding a hint of informal BrE is OK even though the English side is written formally.
- Using words that have originally came from America is acceptable (such as 'okay' and 'hangover').
- Cases to create dialogue boxes that don't contain difference ought to be kept rare when possible.
- Try to avoid dialectical/regional-specific vocabulary or spellings as much as possible (e.g. "apples and pairs" meaning stairs in Cockney or "nowt" meaning nothing in Nothern England ought not to be used).