Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!cam-news-feed3.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!howland.erols.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!not-for-mail
From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Capitalization of improper nouns in earlier English
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: ellis-nfs.uchicago.edu
Message-ID: <E5w5zA.2Lr@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Organization: The University of Chicago
References: <19970217223600.RAA10193@ladder01.news.aol.com> <3309f262.29768594@news.mindspring.com> <E5tM8t.BGy@world.std.com> <01bc1ede$b603b300$218662cf@goodnet.goodnet.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 07:54:46 GMT
Lines: 27

In article <01bc1ede$b603b300$218662cf@goodnet.goodnet.com>,
Steve MacGregor <SteveMac@GoodNet.Com> wrote:

>  German must have the simplest capitalization rules of all languages
>that use them:
>
>  1)  The first word (of a sentence, headline, title, etc.)
>  2a) Polite 2nd-person pronouns
>  2b) In a letter, =all= 2nd-person pronouns
>  3)  Nouns

   4)  Adjectives derived from the names of cities (e.g. Berliner Weiss)
	or persons (e.g. Beck'sche Reihe).

>  Then again, Esperanto's rules are simple, too:
>
>  1)  The first word
>  2)  Proper nouns

Yes and no.  I'm sure the definition of what constitutes a "proper noun"
is less than intuitive.  It's certainly bound to be more complicated than
the definition of a "noun".

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
