Editing Letter case (section)

==Bicameral script==
{{original research|section|date=April 2015}}
[[File:Fountain pen writing (literacy).jpg|thumb|250px|[[Handwritten]] Cyrillic script]]
[[File:Adyge alphabet 1927 (1).JPG|thumb|250px|[[Adyghe language|Adyghe]] Latin alphabet, used between 1927 and 1938, was based on Latin script, but did not have capital letters, being unicameral ([[small caps]] include ᴀ, ʙ, ᴣ, ʀ, {{Smallcaps|{{lc:Ⱪ}}}}, ᴘ, and [[File:Latin letter small capital P with bottom hook.svg|x8px]].]]

A minority of writing systems use two separate cases. Such writing systems are called ''bicameral scripts''. These scripts include the [[Latin alphabet|Latin]], [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]], [[Greek alphabet|Greek]], [[Coptic alphabet|Coptic]], [[Armenian alphabet|Armenian]], [[Glagolitic script|Glagolitic]], [[Adlam alphabet|Adlam]], [[Warang Citi]], [[Old Hungarian alphabet|Old Hungarian]], [[Garay alphabet|Garay]], [[Zaghawa script|Zaghawa]], [[Osage alphabet|Osage]], [[Vithkuqi alphabet|Vithkuqi]], and [[Deseret alphabet|Deseret]] scripts. Languages written in these scripts use letter cases as an aid to clarity. The [[Georgian alphabet]] has several variants, and there were attempts to use them as different cases, but the modern written [[Georgian language]] does not distinguish case.<ref>{{Citation |last=Březina|first=David|date=2012|title=Challenges in multilingual type design|pages=14|via=University of Reading Department of Typography and Design}}</ref>

All other writing systems make no distinction between majuscules and minuscules{{Snd}} a system called unicameral script or [[unicase]]. This includes most [[Syllabary|syllabic]] and other non-alphabetic scripts.

In scripts with a case distinction, lowercase is generally used for the majority of text; capitals are used for capitalisation and [[Emphasis (typography)|emphasis]] when [[font weight|boldface]] is not available. [[Acronym]]s (and particularly initialisms) are often written in [[All caps|all-caps]], depending on [[Acronym#Case|various factors]].

===Capitalisation===
{{Main|Capitalisation}}
Capitalisation is the [[writing]] of a [[word]] with its first [[letter (alphabet)|letter]] in uppercase and the remaining letters in lowercase. Capitalisation rules vary by [[language]] and are often quite complex, but in most modern languages that have capitalisation, the first word of every [[Sentence (linguistics)|sentence]] is capitalised, as are all [[proper noun]]s. {{citation needed|date=October 2015}}

Capitalisation in English, in terms of the general orthographic rules independent of context (e.g. title vs. heading vs. text), is universally standardised for [[formality|formal]] writing. Capital letters are used as the first letter of a sentence, a proper noun, or a [[proper adjective]]. The [[names of the days of the week]] and the names of the months are also capitalised, as are the first-person [[pronoun]] "I"<ref name="Oliver #1">{{cite web | url = http://www.eslcafe.com/grammar/using_capital_letters01.html | title = Using Capital Letters (#1) | author = Dennis Oliver | website = Dave's ESL Cafe | access-date = 19 February 2017 }}</ref> and the [[Vocative case#English|vocative particle]] "[[wikt:O#Particle|O]]". There are a few pairs of words of different meanings whose [[list of case sensitive English words|only difference is capitalisation]] of the first letter. [[Honorific]]s and personal [[title]]s showing rank or prestige are capitalised when used together with the name of the person (for example, "Mr.&nbsp;Smith", "Bishop Gorman", "Professor Moore") or as a direct address, but normally not when used alone and in a more general sense.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://web.mnstate.edu/hanson/MC210/MC210_AP_titles.htm | title = AP Style: Courtesy and Professional Titles | author = Nancy Edmonds Hanson | website = Minnesota State University | date = 25 August 2008 | access-date = 19 February 2017 | archive-date = 1 December 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161201184205/http://web.mnstate.edu/hanson/MC210/MC210_AP_titles.htm | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000049.htm | title = Capitalizing Titles of People | website = English Plus | date = 1997–2006 | access-date = 19 February 2017 }}</ref> It can also be seen as customary to capitalise any word{{Snd}} in some contexts even a pronoun<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Capitalization/faq0004.html | title = Capitalization | website = The Chicago Manual of Style Online | access-date = 19 February 2017 }}</ref>{{Snd}} referring to the [[deity]] of a [[Monotheism|monotheistic religion]].

Other words normally start with a lower-case letter. There are, however, situations where further capitalisation may be used to give added emphasis, for example in headings and publication titles (see below). In some traditional forms of poetry, capitalisation has conventionally been used as a marker to indicate the beginning of a [[Line (poetry)|line of verse]] independent of any grammatical feature. In political writing, parody and satire, the unexpected emphasis afforded by otherwise ill-advised capitalisation is often used to great stylistic effect, such as in the case of George Orwell's [[Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)|Big Brother]].

Other languages vary in their use of capitals. For example, in [[German language|German]] all nouns are capitalised (this was previously common in English as well, mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries), while in [[Romance languages|Romance]] and most other European languages the names of the days of the week, the names of the months, and adjectives of nationality, religion, and so on normally begin with a lower-case letter.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://libguides.dickinson.edu/c.php?g=56073&p=1112966 | title = Citing Sources: Capitalization and Personal Names in Foreign Languages | website = Waidner-Spahr Library | publisher = Dickinson | access-date = 30 March 2017 }}</ref> On the other hand, in some languages it is customary to capitalise [[T–V distinction|formal polite pronouns]], for example {{lang|da|De}}, {{lang|da|Dem}} ([[Danish language|Danish]]), {{lang|de|Sie}}, {{lang|de|Ihnen}} (German), and {{lang|es|Vd}} or {{lang|es|Ud}} (short for {{lang|es|usted}} in [[Spanish language|Spanish]]).

Informal communication, such as [[texting]], [[instant messaging]] or a handwritten [[sticky note]], may not bother to follow the conventions concerning capitalisation, but that is because its users usually do not expect it to be formal.<ref name="Oliver #1" />

===Exceptional letters and digraphs===
* The German letter "[[ß]]" formerly existed only in lower case. The orthographical capitalisation does not concern "ß", which generally does not occur at the beginning of a word, and in the all-caps style it has traditionally been replaced by the [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]] "SS". Since June 2017, however, [[capital ẞ]] is accepted as an alternative in the all-caps style.<ref>Cf. {{citation|first=Kerstin |last=Güthert |url=http://www.rechtschreibrat.com/DOX/rfdr_PM_2017-06-29_Aktualisierung_Regelwerk.pdf|title=PRESSEMITTEILUNG 29.6.2017 Amtliches Regelwerk der deutschen Rechtschreibung aktualisiert |publisher=[[Council for German Orthography]] |access-date=2017-06-29 |year=2017 |page=1}}.</ref> 
* The Greek upper-case letter "[[Sigma|Σ]]" has two different lower-case forms: "ς" in word-final position and "σ" elsewhere. In a similar manner, the Latin upper-case letter "[[S]]" used to have two different lower-case forms: "s" in word-final position and "<big> ſ </big>" elsewhere. The latter form, called the [[long s]], fell out of general use before the middle of the 19th century, except for the countries that continued to use [[blackletter]] typefaces such as [[Fraktur]]. When blackletter type fell out of general use in the mid-20th century, even those countries dropped the long s.{{citation needed|date=September 2014}}
* The treatment of the Greek [[iota subscript]] with upper-case letters is complicated.
* Unlike most languages that use Latin-script and link the dotless upper-case "[[I]]" with the dotted lower-case "i", [[Turkish language|Turkish]], [[Tatar language|Tatar]] (including [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]]) as well as [[Azeri language#North Azerbaijani|some forms of Azeri]] have both a [[İ|dotted]] and [[dotless I]], each in both upper and lower case. Each of the two pairs ("<big>İ/i</big>" and "<big>I/ı</big>") represents a distinctive [[phoneme]].
* In some languages, specific digraphs may be regarded as single letters, and in [[Dutch language|Dutch]], the digraph "[[IJ (digraph)|IJ/ij]]" is even capitalised with both components written in uppercase (for example, "IJsland" rather than "Ijsland").<ref name="Taaladvies" /> In other languages, such as [[Welsh language|Welsh]] and [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], various digraphs are regarded as single letters for collation purposes, but the second component of the digraph will still be written in lower case even if the first component is capitalised. Similarly, in [[South Slavic languages]] whose orthography is coordinated between the Cyrillic and Latin scripts, the Latin digraphs "[[Lj (letter)|ǈ/ǉ]]", "[[Nj (digraph)|ǋ/ǌ]]" and "[[Dž (digraph)|ǅ/ǆ]]" are each regarded as a single letter (like their Cyrillic equivalents "[[Lje|Љ/љ]]", "[[Nje|Њ/њ]]" and "[[Dzhe|Џ/џ]]", respectively), but only in all-caps style should both components be in upper case (e.g. ǈiǉan–ǇIǇAN, ǋoǌa–ǊOǊA, ǅiǆa–ǄIǄA).{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} [[Unicode]] designates a [[Digraph (orthography)#In Unicode|single character]] for each case variant (i.e., upper case, title case and lower case) of the three digraphs.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0180.pdf | title = Latin Extended-B | at = U+01C4, U+01C5, U+01C6, U+01C7, U+01C8, U+01C9, U+01CA, U+01CB, U+01CC | publisher = Unicode | access-date = 5 February 2017 }}</ref>
* Some English surnames such as fforbes are traditionally spelt with a digraph instead of a capital letter (at least for ff).
* In the [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] orthography, the [[ʻOkina|{{okina}}okina]] is a [[phonemic]] symbol that visually resembles a left single [[quotation mark]]. Representing the [[glottal stop]], the {{okina}}okina can be characterised as either a letter<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.blondvoyage.com/single-post/2015/08/12/Why-I-Spell-it-Hawai%E2%80%98i-and-not-Hawaii-and-Why-You-Should-Too | title = Why I Spell it Hawai'i and not Hawaii, and Why You Should, Too | website = Blond Voyage | access-date = 6 August 2017 }}</ref> or a [[diacritic]].<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.hawaii.edu/site/info/diacritics.php | title = Hawaiian Language Online | website = The University of Hawai‘i | access-date = 6 August 2017 }}</ref> As a unicase letter, the {{okina}}okina is unaffected by capitalisation; it is the following letter that is capitalised instead.

===Related features===
Similar orthographic and graphostylistic conventions are used for emphasis or following language-specific or other rules, including:
* [[Font]] effects such as [[italic type]] or [[oblique type]], [[boldface]], and choice of [[serif]] vs. [[sans-serif]].
* In [[mathematical notation]] lower-case and upper-case letters have generally different meanings, and other meanings can be implied by the use of other [[typeface]]s, such as [[boldface]], [[fraktur]], [[script typeface]], and [[blackboard bold]].
* Some letters of the [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] and [[Hebrew alphabet]]s and some [[Hangul consonant and vowel tables|jamo]] of the Korean [[hangul]] have different forms depending on placement within a word, but these rules are strict and the different forms cannot be used for emphasis.
**In the Arabic and Arabic-based alphabets, letters in a word are connected, except for several that cannot connect to the following letter. Letters may have distinct forms depending on whether they are initial (connected only to the following letter), medial (connected to both neighboring letters), final (connected only to the preceding letter), or isolated (connected to neither a preceding nor a following letter).
**In the Hebrew alphabet, five letters have a distinct form (see [[Final form]]) that is used when they are word-final.
* In [[Georgian alphabet|Georgian]], some authors use isolated letters from the ancient [[Asomtavruli]] alphabet within a text otherwise written in the modern [[Georgian alphabet#Mkhedruli|Mkhedruli]] in a fashion that is reminiscent of the usage of upper-case letters in the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets.
* In the [[Japanese writing system]], an author has the option of switching between [[kanji]], [[hiragana]], [[katakana]], and [[rōmaji]]. In particular, every hiragana character has an equivalent katakana character, and vice versa. Romanised Japanese sometimes uses lowercase letters to represent words that would be written in hiragana, and uppercase letters to represent words that would be written in katakana. Some kana characters are written in smaller type when they modify or combine with the preceding sign (''[[yōon]]'') or the following sign (''[[sokuon]]'').