{"slug": "this-blog-is-written-in-en-gb", "title": "This blog is written in en-GB", "summary": "A British blogger refuses to make their language more inclusive for global readers, arguing that cultural and linguistic differences are acceptable and that readers can use context clues to understand unfamiliar references. The blogger defends their use of British English and cultural tropes, citing examples like Harry Potter's title changes and the ability to learn new concepts.", "body_md": "Someone left a comment on my blog recently asking if I'd mind making my language more inclusive. They didn't get some of the cultural references I'd used and suggested it would be easier if I used tropes which were more globally known.\n\nHere's the thing. No.\n\nAll my blog posts start with a simple declaration:\n\n```\n\n\n```\n\nThere's a reason for that. It is more than the language I speak; it is the culture I live in, the way that I think, and the accent I use.\n\nWhen your AI bot reads this text aloud, it should do so with a *British* accent 0. That's how I speak. It is OK to hear a slightly unfamiliar accent. You'll be able to figure out what I'm saying. Your world won't collapse if I don't start each sentence with \"Howdy, y'all!\"\n\nBut what should you do if you come across a concept you don't understand?\n\nWhen The Wicked Witch of the TERFs released the first Harry Potter book \"Philosopher's Stone\", it was published in the USA with a different title; \"Sorcerer's Stone\". There were also a dozen other language changes - [which caused great consternation in the fandom](https://groups.google.com/g/alt.fan.harry-potter/c/5jh8ZD6KzF0/m/Ck5EIv01Js8J).\n\nWhat do you think happens if Skip or Madison come across a kid eating \"a sherbet lemon\" or a description of Hermione's \"fringe\" or discover Harry wearing a jumper? Will their little minds collapse under the knowledge that people far away use different words?\n\nNo. And neither will you.\n\n**It is OK if things are unfamiliar to you.**\n\nUp until my mid-twenties, I had never seen or eaten a Twinkie. They were a cultural lodestone in a hundred books and films, but not the sort of thing I could buy locally. So I used my context clues. They seemed like an unappealing foodstuff which, nevertheless, were inexplicably popular.\n\nAs a kid, I could recite all the lyrics to Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby without getting half the references. The brain is malleable and can fit in new concepts with relative ease.\n\nSo if you see a reference to Count Duckula, or hear me exclaim \"Accrington Stanley!\", or even blush as I describe an *utter* wanker - please take it as a sign that the hegemony is *not* universal and some people exist in a cultural *milieu* different to your own.\n\nAnd breathe. It'll be OK.\n\n-\nOK, accents are a whole can of worms.\n\n[Regional English is varied](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_England#Overview_of_regional_accents). I'm not sure if there are any BCP-style tags for intra-country accents.[↩︎](#fnref:accent)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/this-blog-is-written-in-en-gb", "canonical_source": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/this-blog-is-written-in-en-gb/", "published_at": "2026-07-02 12:17:33+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-03 22:28:26.926977+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-ethics", "natural-language-processing"], "entities": ["Harry Potter", "Vanilla Ice", "Count Duckula", "Accrington Stanley"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/this-blog-is-written-in-en-gb", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/this-blog-is-written-in-en-gb.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/this-blog-is-written-in-en-gb.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/this-blog-is-written-in-en-gb.jsonld"}}