Any difference in spelling/words between British/US books?

[tbessie]

I know that the Harry Potter books were slightly modified for the US market, as far as specific words used that they felt might not be understood in the US.

Was the same done for the His Dark Materials books, does anyone know?

I've searched around a bit, and haven't found this asked yet.

- Tim

[salvete]

Well, I can't tell you that, but I know that they made an idiotic change in the danish books. You see, in Denmark "dæmon" is an actual word meaning "demon", but instead of using that, they've changed it to "daimon" which dosen't sound like "dæmon" at all...

[Diolmhain]

accept for the attrociuos spelling of the words NORTHERN_LIGHTS
(they misspelt it so badly it was THE_GOLDEN_COMPASS!)
no i don't think so.........

[Claire de la Lune]

I'm not sure, but did they change the spelling of armoured bear to armored bear as Americans would spell it for The Golden Compass?

[Soapy]

They changed the spelling of "spectres" to "specters".

<mutters>

[Diolmhain]

oh yes i remember being gunned down by sraffies for that one when i was a newbie.
Good times.

[Mockingbird]

oh yes i remember being gunned down by sraffies for that one when i was a newbie.
Good times.

I remember defending you on that one. And don't worry, I'm sure you're still considered a n00b.

There are probably other insignificant differences between the two versions--'colour' v. 'color' etc...

[Diolmhain]

If i was stilll considered a n00b i'd be replying to this post instead of mutually...

... .....

[Ursae Majoris]

I'm not sure, but did they change the spelling of armoured bear to armored bear as Americans would spell it for The Golden Compass?

Yes, they did and they also changed some of the chapter titles throughout the trilogy as well.

[SpaceTraveler]

Which chapter titles did they change?

[Ursae Majoris]

They changed chapter 20 in NL from À Outrance to Northern Lights in TGC. There are probably more though, this was the only change listed in the wiki.

[Slizer]

They humbucked spectre? Geez thats bad. I've not found any differences with finnish ones. If ya wanna more info contact asidi in #btts As I need to get the darned english versions from somewhere.

[Kyrillion]

There's a few dfferences (I guess a lot of them - like the title in fact) are more because PP was able to revise the British edition a stage further than the American cos of bad communication. But that doesn't mean the British ones are better - there's one little bit that you only get at the end of the American editions when Lyra is talking to Pan. It's included on the audio editions:

Pan: We could do it. We came all this way, didn't we?
Lyra: We got it wrong though, Pan. We got it all wrong about Roger. We thought we were helping him.

Maybe it's just the actor's reading of this on the tapes but it breaks my heart every time.

[jessia]

i thought the american editions were published later than the british editions?

[Slizer]

No wai.

[Enitharmon]

Don't forget the whole passage (Lyra's Orgasm) from TAS which was excised from Merkin editions...

[Somewhat]

What editons are those?

Kyrillon, it's more than those two lines I think: it's an entire paragraph they managed to miss.

[Angel to follow]

Don't forget the whole passage (Lyra's Orgasm) from TAS which was excised from Merkin editions...

What? Is that in British editions?

[Enitharmon]

Unfortunately I no longer have copies of the books and I can't seem to find the relevant quotations on the site any more.

But I'm sure somesraffie will be along shortly to quote in full the relevant paragraph from the British edition of the chapter entitled Marzipan and the rather limp two lines substituted for it in the Merkin editions.

[SpaceTraveler]

Do you mean the lines about Lyra feeling as if dark rooms in a mansion were being lit up inside her? That is still in the editions I have.