Majuscules and minuscules

Randy Alexander strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM
Thu Nov 19 13:23:54 UTC 2009


On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 5:47 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> In Latin-based scripts and a few others, majuscules are used to
> indicate proper nouns (people, places, organizations, etc.)
>
> Are there any scripts where a different technique is used to
> distinguish proper from common nouns? Â A kind of diacritical
> marking? Â An additional word or particle? Â Etc.

I can't believe this didn't cross my mind on first read, but Manchu
script does this on a very limited basis: rulers' names are preceded
by a big space in the text.

I think I've seen this same practice in Chinese of a certain period
too, but I have to do some digging and thinking before I can give you
specifics.

--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China
Blogs:
Manchu studies: http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu
Chinese characters: http://www.bjshengr.com/yuwen

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