Re: about WIGWAM and TEEPEE and Americanisms in AR's works


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Posted by Robert Dilley on June 17, 1999 at 19:49:32 from geog-rc2006f.lakeheadu.ca:

In Reply to: Re: about WIGWAM and TEEPEE and Americanisms in AR's works posted by Alan Hakim on June 17, 1999 at 18:43:32:

Remember that Titty, who so often took the lead in naming things, was a voracious reader and the most insistent of all of them in using the "right" word in the context. When prospecting and mining I am sure she was in a "Wild West" mood and would want to use the vocabulary from her reading, such as "Gulch" and "jumping" claims.
I agree that "wigwam" should be tepee (or tipi) but also recollect, growing up in the UK, that I never thought of such a structure as anything but a wigwam.
Alan Hakim has explained the use of "vacation" in the UK -- at Cambridge we had Christmas, Easter and Long Vacations. Here in Canada (at least at Lakehead U) we have "terms" not "semesters" but there really is no generic word for the intervals. Students will say "Have a good Christmas" or "Enjoy your summer" (there is no time off at Easter, other than Friday and Monday). The nearest to a generic might be "break" as in "summer break", but it is not a widespread usage. "Vacation" seems to be reserved for actually going away somewhere to do something ("Where did you go for your vacation?") and "holiday" for an official day off (cf "Bank holiday") in the UK.
One thing I am grateful has never happened is to "Americanise" Ransome for the US market. I have just been reading through the Margery Allingham detective series, and in one US edition a stolid rural East Anglian policeman refers to a child's "mommy". Ugh.



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