Re: Capitalization of common nouns in Germanic languages

Andrew Dunbar wrote:

>
> I have heard that several languages besides German
> formerly practiced capitalization of all nouns. I am
> trying to find more detailed information.
>
> So far I have found that for Norwegian, "the Ministry
> gave permission to not capitalise in 1877 and it seems
> to have disappeared around 1907". For Danish, it was
> abolished as part of a spelling reform in 1948. So far
> I have been unable to find the answer for Dutch,
> Icelandic, Swedish, or any of the smaller languages.
> I've also read that it was very common (if not totally
> standard) for a couple of centuries in English.

Have a look at the Transactions of the Royal Society from the beginnings
in the late 1600s; also the Declaration and Constitution (1776, 1787).

In Edmond Halley's article on Palmyra (TRS 1688 IIRC), nouns are
capitalized and proper names are italicized.

> Also, has this ever been practiced in any non-Germanic
> languages?

The places to look are British settlements in places that didn't have
indigenous writing systems in the 17th-18th centuries. Williams's and
Eliot's Massachusett and Natick materials are a possibility.

Konkani, an Indic language of Goa, was written with the roman alphabet
but the Portuguese got there first, so it doesn't count.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...