P. S.: Wer die
englische Originalausgabe liest, sollte darauf gefasst sein, dass die
(Unterschicht)Figuren nicht gerade feines Oxford-Englisch sprechen!
Folks do tend to put such remarks in a postscript. Yes, I'll
translate in a second, but first, I want to point out that this form of
communication strongly resembles that of the patient walking out the doctor's
door after a fifteen minute interview, popping his head back in for a
nanosecond to say, "By the way, is it normal that I throw up every
morning?" In other words, both are symptoms of an illness.
Now, here's what that p.s. said: "If you're reading the English
original, you should be warned that the (lower class) characters don't speak
the fine Oxford English!" The reviewer puts "lower class"
in parentheses, apparently having figured out that One Doesn't Say That,
even in the Fine Oxford English. The Fine Oxford English is
"received pronunciation," a term invariably tied to money, status,
and high social class. But I'll let you in on a little secret. The
Fine Oxford English is barely spoken in Oxford anymore. Let's have a
little perspective. The only person whom I know here in Germany who really
speaks Oxford English is the Nigerian father of one of my younger son's
kindergarten classmates. As everyone
knows, Nigeria was a British colony, and as post-colonialist scholars have been
pointing out for at least the last thirty years, one of the typical reactions of
colonized peoples is to identify with the aggressor, that is, to try to become
more English than the English in the spirit of "if you can't lick 'em,
join 'em." For the pure tones of
Oxford English, hang out in the provincial regions of the former British India,
or in Nigeria. The metropolitan picture--where the action is--differs. Considerably. In Mumbai, population 20.5 million and growing, the big bucks are in American English jobs. One is expected to overcome that Oxford twang and pick up a midwestern one, in order to hop on to that well-paid computer assistance job, the one where you speak to a native of Ohio in his or her accent, after identifying yourself as Sandy or Susy--never as Baijayanthi or Chakradev. But where there's a glimmer of nostalgia for the former
conqueror, there's still respect for Oxford English. So my Nigerian friend
asked me if I'd teach him American black English because his friends were
making fun of him--he sounded too "Oxford." Me? With my Annie Hall
accent?
Admittedly, a battered version of Oxford English is spoken in German
elementary schools: it would be more accurate to say that a form of
English fondly imagined by German teachers to be "Oxford" is taught
there. Badly. As when my daughter's teacher told her little
students: "Look TO my mouth!" Pronounced
"mouf." My son tells me that his English teacher once said he
sounded a little funny. She herself imagines
that she sounds British. She has a heavy German accent--the pronounced hissing "s" in the
word "is," the "ch" sound instead of a "j," the
uttering of "Sponge Bob" so that it sounds like "Spunch
Bop." She is however able to linger
on the "o" in the phrase "roasted fox," in a way that
sounds British. I can ape an Oxford British accent but like Bartleby I would prefer not to. It sounds funny. It sounds like girls who grew up on Park
Avenue and said "Mummy" instead of "Mommy" so everyone
would know that they went to the right schools.
It sounds faintly undemocratic.
And it sounds less lively. I
love, no adore, the endless varieties of American slang. And I want my son to know all of those things
and love them too--not sound like a bad imitation of a Brit. Do I halfway
believe in the superiority of the British accent myself, me with my Annie Hall
accent? Is it only my resentment toward
my British colonizing forbears that makes me proud of the way I pronounce an
"r" instead of ignoring it or turning it into an "ah," as
in "wheah have you been?"
While
the rest of the world was watching CNN and BBC, that is. Have German teachers of the English language
noticed that "radio English" went out with the radio? In a world where people pick up the news from
their iPads, no one is speaking Oxford English, except natives of the small
city of Oxford, population about 165,000, located on
that tiny island whose nostalgia about its vanished empire seems to have
infected the English teachers of Germany. Besides, the most recent
statistics--which are eleven years old, dating from 2001--say that at least 19%
of the population of Oxford was born outside the U.K. Don't bank on Oxford English selling too much
longer, when American companies are investing in teaching American accents to
the Indians they hire to answer American calls to computer help lines. Or now that the Oxford University Press is
advertising Global English on several websites.
Now,
back to J.K. Rowling’s new novel. Some are calling it "Mugglemarch," which I'd take as a
great compliment, but Michiko Kakutani is complaining that
there's no "narrative sorcery." Aw, come on. I can guarantee you one thing. Rowling did not grow up speaking Oxford English. Hurrah for Edinburgh! If the city of Edinburgh had conquered most of Africa and all of India in the 19th century, would German children be taught to speak with an Edinburgh accent? I guess we'll never know, but I can't wait to read The Casual Vacancy.
P.S. And I'm so glad she didn't bump off Ron Weasley.
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