LL-L "Orthography" 2005.07.25 (08) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 25.JUL.2005 (08) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
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From: Ian Pollock (ispollock at shaw.ca)
Subject: Orthography

On 25-Jul-05, at 3:43 PM, Lowlands-L wrote:

> Unless I'm sorely mistaken, "you" and "your" have not been capitalized
> for a long, long time.  You can see them capitalized in documents up
> until the 18th or perhaps 19th century, and then it wasn't done
> consistently.  Maybe your teacher was similarly misinformed or made
> something up there.  My teacher made sure we knew that those words
> were *not* capitalized as in German, and she turned out to be right.
> English speakers find it very strange if you capitalize those words
> anywhere other than at the beginning of a sentence or in a title.  As
> far as I am aware, equivalent words are capitalized only in a handful
> of languages, such as German and the Scandinavian languages.

The second-person plural/polite pronoun in all its inflections is
capitalized in Russian in formal writing. Certainly my professor always
uses it when she writes to me: Вы not вы.

-Ian

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From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2005.07.25 (05) [E]

Oh, sorry, Mr. Smith,

(the name of my English teacher)
If you only would be alive and able to read my nonsense!

Obviously I'm mixing up elder German rules and British politeness- the first
one essential for being able to be understood, the second one just a
fixative presumption.

OK- I did like it. Good Bye, capitalized 'Y'.

But-:

> I understand that English "I" is capitalized only because "i" would
> "disappear" or look very odd.

We learned: British people always had been aware of their very personal,
specific importance ;-)!

Regards and yours(???häh?) sincerely

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Orthography

Moin, Jonny!

Having said all that, you *do* capitalize the pronoun in forms like 
"Your/His/Her Worship" (for a non-American judge), "Your/His/Her Eminence" 
(for various types of dignitaries), "Your/His Lordship" (for a lord of the 
British Commonwealth), "Your/Her Ladyship" (for a lady of the British 
Commonwealth), "Your/His/Her (Royal) Highness" (for most members of a royal 
house and various other type of upper echelon aristocrats), "Your/His/Her 
Majesty" (for a monarch), and so forth.  However, I don't think you can be 
sued if you don't, or if you do not address the Queen as "Your Majesty" or 
just as "Ma'am."  After all, people are free not to be royalists.  I've 
heard the Queen being addressed as "Mrs. Windsor," and she seemed to be fine 
with that.  (I don't know how she'd react to "Mrs. Batterberg," which would 
be her name had it not been for the family's name change due to needing to 
cover their German descent in wartimes.)  "Else Battenbarg" ...  Now there's 
a fine Low Saxon name!

How is it I started with "Orthography" and ended up here?  Blame the heat!

> We learned: British people always had been aware of their very personal,
> specific importance ;-)!

Great!  Another old-time stereotype down the drain!  I wonder if it grew 
from Prussian-time German puzzlement over British people enjoying the 
seemingly frivolous freedom to be excentric, as opposed to keeping in step 
with the rest ... in goose-step.

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron

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