Victorian Era English
April 28th, 2010 by Jomel Fuentes
My teen-age daughter wrote a psychological thriller novella, “Keeping Her in the Light” last summer that Canada-based Eternal Press published last November.
She wants to finish another psychological thriller that she started writing 2 years ago. The setting is during the Victorian Era. She stopped writing this novella because she feels that the conversations in her novella should be in the style of the Victorian Era.
Kindly advise if there is a software or method of converting modern day English to the Victorian Era English.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jomel Fuentes
Manila, Philippines
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We (i.e. the creators of Pain in The English) developed a series of iPhone apps to teach preschool kids how to recognize letters and words. (My wife developed the characters and I did the coding.) Our own 4-year old daughter has been enjoying them. They are now available on Apple's App Store. You can search for "bitskis" on your iPhone, or visit the official website at bitskis.com.
If you have kids and own an iPhone, please check it out. It's $2.
As far as I have experienced, there really aren’t any guidelines or methods for rewriting something into a different form of English. I have never done this specific exercise, but I have rewritten blog posts & personal press releases originally drafted by non-American English speakers. It seems simple, but you would be amazed at how different your own language can be in a different part of the world.
I know less about Victorian Era English than I do more modern variants, but there are a couple suggestions I can offer. I am sure that she has read a few books written from that era.
• Be very keen for culture-specific expressions–words, phrases & idioms.
• Be conscious of subtlety. Back then, many things we find commonplace were immoral and taboo to talk about, so adopting the language of someone like Chuck Palahniuk might not be the best idea.
• Look for any patterns in sentence structure; people spoke much more elaborately and eloquently back then, so you might need to write more than 140 characters per sentence.
I hope this helps!
There is no easy shortcut to just reading a lot of victorian english, and getting to know the lingo, I’m afraid.
Good Afternoon,
Perhaps one would obtain a reasonable grounding in Victorian English vocabulary by reading a Victorian English book. May I be so bold as to suggest any book by one of the Brotë sisters or even a Dickens novel. Victorian English really was a beautiful language; however it is now very much in decline. Some purists still speak it around this beautiful country and it is wanderful to hear. Sadly, English has become ‘polluted’ by numerous colourful Americanisms – No offence intended.
Kindest Regards