To italicize or not to italicize...

[william ryan]

There are no absolute rules, just conventions which can be broken 
according to circumstance. Decide on a good reference dictionary and 
stick to it as far as possible. I find the most convenient source is the 
New Oxford Spelling Dictionary (110,000 entries but a very compact 
desktop aid) which includes US and UK spellings, also historical 
personal and geographical names, indicates when italics should be used 
(it is sparing in this - your shashlik, kulak, and kvass are all left 
unitalicized), gives alternative plurals where this is a problem, and 
indicates preferred and alternative word breaks. Most style books, 
including the Chicago Manual of Style, suggest that unfamiliar foreign 
words should be italicized only at the first occurrence if they appear 
frequently in a book or article. These two books are my most used 
editorial tools. Some publishers and journals may have their own house 
rules on this and if you are publishing with them then of course you 
follow their instructions.

Will Ryan

On 13/09/2014 06:45, Andrea Gregovich wrote:
> Hello folks!
>
> How do you know if a word is established enough to not be italicized 
> if you are transliterating it rather than translating it? This is for 
> a translation of a perestroika era novel from a young boy's point of 
> view. I'm not italicizing rubles, kopecks, and perestroika, and I'm 
> definitely italicizing /gopniki/. But what about words like shashlik, 
> kulak, and kvass? They are all three in my Oxford American dictionary, 
> but it's a huge tome with all sorts of extras in it. How do I decide 
> on words like this?
>
> What I really need here is a rule of thumb as to how to be consistent 
> about this. There are too many complexities to make it an all or 
> nothing thing.
>
> Thank you!
> Andrea Gregovich
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