Was Harry Potter originally written in American English?

Question

I coudn't read it because the Ameican terminology did not ring true for English characters. I never heard an English child call his mother "Mom"; it's usually "Mum" or "Mummy". There were numerous examples like this. Did I get a version adapted for American readers?

Answer 1

The books were written and published in Britain, but there were changes made for Americans. For example, the first book of the series is called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" everywhere except the USA. Apparently they decided that Americans were too dumb to know what the philosopher's stone was. I have copies from Canada and the UK, and there are differences between them and the American versions. You can order the UK versions from amazon.uk or the Canadian versions from amazon.ca if you're interested. There are also some websites that track the differences:

http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/REF/potter.html
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/differences.html

Answer 2

If you live in the US and bought the book in the US from the American publisher, yeah, you did. Rowling is a British writer, and when her books were published in the US they americanized much of the text, including the title of the first book (philosopher's ston vs. sorcerer's stone).

I hear the later books have less changes in them than the first, because the publisher feel the audience now know the characters well enough to understand more British expressions.

Answer 3

i think you did. JK Rowling is British, in fact, she is one of the richest women in England! An all because Harry Potter is such a big hit! Did you know it took her two years to publish the first Harry Potter book? It's true! I bet all those publishers that rejected it were sorry!

Answer 4

I wouldn't think so - the author is from the UK. You probably got an Americanized version. I know they have them out there - a friend of mine is a HP fan and she mentioned getting that. In England they use phrases like, "I'll knock you up", meaning, "I'll stop by and see you". When, of course, in America, that means, "I'll impregnate you." So you can see why they'd do a translation of sorts.

Answer 5

the author J.K Rowling's is English but the book is probably adapted for the American readers as some of the our words have different meanings over there such as fag here means a cigarette there its a gay person if you get my jist lol

Answer 6

I think the author's British. But maybe the words were written with an American audience in mind.

Answer 7

You got an American version.