Russian language has nothing special from other cyrillic languages to have it’s own section on Style page, all the same rules applies to all cyrillic languages Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Belarusian etc.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I am not very familiar with any languages written in Cyrillic script, so I would never be able to recognise the problem you are pointing out in our present text.
What change would you propose to make?
The only Cyrillic-script language I see in the Language-specific guidelines section of Style is Russian. The guidance there mentions some guidelines which might be generic to Cyrillic script, for instance, “Words in Russian are generally much longer than English ones.… Capital letters at the beginning of each long word look unnatural and unconventional.” But it also mentions some guidelines based on Russian grammar, for instance, “Capitalize all words that should be capitalized by the rules of Russian grammar, i.e. proper nouns, titles, starts of sentences, etc.”
If all of Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Belarusian, Russian, etc. (the Slavic languages written in Cyrillic) have longer words, and have grammar rules for capitalising words, then we could rewrite the Style / Language / Russian as Style/Language/Cyrillic script, and then put Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Belarusian, and Russian entries in the list below, each linking to Style/Language/Cyrillic script.
There are about 40 other languages said to be written with the Cyrillic script. It may be that the advice for the Slavic languages does not apply to all of them. In that case, maybe it is better copying Style/Language/Russian into new articles for Belorussian, Bulgarian, and Ukranian.
I can propose small changes like this
Rules for capitalizing titles in Cyrillic languages are simple and straight-forward:
- Capitalize first word of title, all other words in lower case, except for:
- Capitalize all words that should be capitalized by the grammar rules of the respective language, i.e. proper nouns, titles, starts of sentences, etc.
Rationale
Words in Cyrillic languages are generally much longer than English ones and sentences with long words tend to look better when only the first word is capitalized. Capital letters at the beginning of each long word look unnatural and unconventional.
There are a wide range of languages that use or used Cyrillic, including Mongolian, Karelian, and Dungan. Are you sure they all use the same rules? @Jim_DeLaHunt’s suggestion of limiting to the Slavic Cyrillic languages seems more likely to be correct to me. But I’m just a language/script geek, not an expert in any of these languages.
That has nothing to do with this discussion. (and answer is basically yes, with some ultra specific exceptions in each language)
Style documentaion in question is about use of capitalization.
Currently it says:
1 Capitalize first word of title, all other words in lower case, except for:
2 Capitalize all words that should be capitalized by the rules of Russian grammar, i.e. proper nouns, titles, starts of sentences, etc.
Rationale
Words in Russian are generally much longer than English ones and sentences with longs words tend to look better when only the first word is capitalized. Capital letters at the beginning of each long word look unnatural and unconventional.
My point is that Rationale is applicable to all Cyrillic-script languages and 1st and 2nd rule covers everything else.
Replacing “Russian” with (for example) “Cyrillic-script language” will not harm anything and will provide stylistic guidance for users of those languages, not only for Russian as it currently stands.
Do you have any sources that describe how capitalization is the same for Cyrillic in all languages, including non-Slavic ones?
this is not relevant to this discussion
Isn’t that exactly what you’re claiming? What am I missing?
here is my claim, you missed the point of the first message in this thread
I think @dseomn is asking you to provide evidence to back up your claim in the first message. You are probably right, but “right + evidence” is better than “right without evidence”.
I unrestand that but since what he is asking for is totally off topic there is no need or reason to flood this thread with proofs.
Here is some examples:
Russian - Съешь ещё этих мягких французских булок.
Ukrainian - З’їж ще цих м’яких французьких булок.
Belarusian - З’еш яшчэ гэтых мяккіх французскіх булак.
Bulgarian - Изяж още от тези меки френски кифли.
Serbian - Поједи још ових меких француских лепиња.
Macedonian - Изеди уште од овие меки француски кифли.
Kazakh - Осы жұмсақ француз тоқаштарынан тағы же.
Kyrgyz - Бул жумшак француз булочкаларынан дагы жегин.
Tajik - Аз ин булочкаҳои нарми фаронсавӣ боз бихӯр.
Mongolian - Эдгээр зөөлөн франц талхнаас дахиад ид.
Rusyn - З’їж ще тых мягкых французьскых булок.
Buryat - Эдэ зөөлэн француз талхануудаас дабтан эди.
Kalmyk - Эдн зөөлн франц талхнаас нөкд нөкд ид.
Tuvan - Бо ыдык француз нандындан дагы чап кыл.
Sakha (Yakut) - Бу мөлтөх француз кинигэлэртэн тағыы аһа.
Chuvash - Кайран та çак мягкĕ францусла çӳреке çи.
Komi - Сій кыдзь француз няньйыс сьӧлӧмтӧг.
Udmurt - Сизь усьты француз булочкаяз сё.
Mari - Тиде йӧра француз лепешкымат ышт.
Erzya - Тон седе нежнень французонь лепешкать сёр.
Moksha - Тя мязь французонь лепешкатнень юма.
Ossetian - Сæй фæрнæй француз лæппуйтæ фæстæг кæнд.
Ingush - Хьо цхьа хьан француз булкъаш юкъе дийца.
Chechen - Хьо и францезан хьоьлханан мягх булкаш дийца.
Abkhaz - Уа француз шәҟәқәа рҿынтә даҽа мягь бжьы рф.
Adyghe - ФIыцIэ французыпэм къэу гъэкIагъэ шъу къышъф.
Kabardian - Французым и пэ мягъэ гъэщхэр къыпхуит.
Back to the main point of creation of this thread
Ineed you can see that what is sided in the Style page of russian language applicable to not only russian but other cyrillic-script language “Words are generally much longer than English ones and sentences with longs words tend to look better when only the first word is capitalized”
That is all what this topic was created about. To streamline style documentation for other cyrillic-script languages than russian only.
I know nothing so pardon me if I’m wrong but, it seems those are sentences, not actual titles. ![]()
holy guacamole… forget that i’ve asked anything. delete this thread please
I would much rather have a separate Ukrainian guideline, written in Ukrainian, even if the content is the same. Same for Bulgarian etc. It would make no sense to have them all written in Russian.
I see you are listed as a native Ukrainian speaker, @karpuzikov - could you put together such a page?
The rules and content are also quite similar for Spanish, Catalan and Italian for example, but each language’s speaker would search for their own language guideline (and it’s also more useful if we eventually expand the guidelines with more language-specific detail).