# all Nordic: capitalization of phrases



## Gavril

Hello,

For each of the Nordic languages, which kind of capitalization below is correct? Or could either one be correct, depending on the context?

Norwegian: _Amerikas forente stater_ / _Amerikas Forente Stater_

Swedish: _Amerikas förenta stater_ / _Amerikas Förenta Stater_

Danish: _Amerikas forenede stater_ / _Amerikas Forenede Stater_

I don't think this example works in Icelandic because of the way they translate "USA" (_Bandaríki Ameríku_). Instead, how about _Franz Josefs land_ vs. _Franz Josefs Land_?


Ta(c)k(k)


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## Göte

I would trust Wikipedia in this matter, i.e. Norwegian: *Amerikas forente stater, *Swedish: *Amerikas förenta stater, *Danish: *Amerikas Forenede Stater. *

The Swedish capitalisation rules can be found on http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versalisering#I_egennamn


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## Gavril

Göte said:


> I would trust Wikipedia in this matter, i.e. Norwegian: *Amerikas forente stater, *Swedish: *Amerikas förenta stater, *Danish: *Amerikas Forenede Stater. *



I  haven't been able (so far) to back up Wikipedia's spellings with  Google. For example, a Swedish governmental website has the sentence



> Sverige var det första land, utöver de stater som varit direkt  inblandade i det amerikanska frihetskriget, som 1783 erkände Amerikas  Förenta Stater.



Similarly, a Norwegian governmental website has a page with the sentence



> Overenskomsten mellom Norge og Amerikas Forente Stater  til unngåelse av dobbeltbeskatning og forebygging av skatteunndragelse  med hensyn til inntektsskatter, [...] skal bringes til avslutning  [...]


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## oskhen

Pretty sure the Norwegian one is optional


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## oskhen

Sorry, found this: "Ifølge norske språkregler skal egennavn bestående av       flere ord bare ha stor forbokstav i det første ordet"

So, looks like names of places, countries, organizations, etc that consist of several words, should only have capital letter in the first word.

Edit: Seems like there are some exceptions. Here's a list of words that many have problems capitalizing correctly: http://www.korrekturavdelingen.no/K4ForbokstavLISTE.htm


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## Sepia

Danish: All parts capitalized.


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## AutumnOwl

Gavril said:


> I  haven't been able (so far) to back up Wikipedia's spellings with  Google. For example, a Swedish governmental website has the sentence


In that case the governmental website is not following the rules from Språkrådet (the Swedish Language Council), http://www.spraknamnden.se/sprakladan/ShowSearch.aspx?id=id=48722;objekttyp=lan , they recommend Amerikas förenta stater.


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## Segorian

Göte said:


> Norwegian: *Amerikas forente stater, *Swedish: *Amerikas förenta stater, *Danish: *Amerikas Forenede Stater.*



As already confirmed by some of the other replies, this correctly describes the convention in each of the three countries.

Regarding Swedish usage in particular, the two main references would seem to be _Myndigheternas skrivregler_ and _TT-språket_. Both publications give the Swedish name for USA as _Förenta staterna_ (see p. 36 in the former and this section of the latter).

_TT-språket:_
USA (Förenta staterna) amerikan (-er) amerikansk

In fact, in Sweden, nearly everyone refers to the USA either as _USA_, quite simply, or as _Förenta staterna_. Outside quite formal contexts, few people ever use the form _Amerikas förenta stater_. It is most frequently seen in certain official publications, which is the reason why it returns a disproportionately large number of results in, for example, a Google search. To get a more realistic picture of the actual usage, try searching for the different terms on the website of DN or another of the large newspapers.

For the sake of completeness, I would like to mention that although the name _Bandaríki Ameríku_—or more frequently _Bandaríki Norður-Ameríku, BNA_—exists in Icelandic, it is used, especially nowadays, even more rarely than _Amerikas förenta stater_ in Swedish. In 99 percent of the cases, the term used is _Bandaríkin_. The abbreviation _USA_ (or even _BNA_) is sometimes used to save space in tables, advertisements, etc.


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## Gavril

I only mentioned _Bandaríki Ameríku_ (the "long" version of _Bandaríkin_) because the second word in it is a proper noun, and so I would expect it to stay capitalized in all cases. In the case of _Bandaríki Norður-Ameríku_, _norður_ is not a proper noun by itself, but it seems be capitalized along with _Ameríku_ because of the hyphen.

Are there any place names in Icelandic like _Förenta stater_, where the second word is not a proper noun? If so, does Icelandic capitalize the second word or put it in lower case?

Takk



Segorian said:


> As already confirmed by some of the other replies, this correctly describes the convention in each of the three countries.
> 
> Regarding Swedish usage in particular, the two main references would seem to be _Myndigheternas skrivregler_ and _TT-språket_. Both publications give the Swedish name for USA as _Förenta staterna_ (see p. 36 in the former and this section of the latter).
> 
> _TT-språket:_
> USA (Förenta staterna) amerikan (-er) amerikansk
> 
> In fact, in Sweden, nearly everyone refers to the USA either as _USA_, quite simply, or as _Förenta staterna_. Outside quite formal contexts, few people ever use the form _Amerikas förenta stater_. It is most frequently seen in certain official publications, which is the reason why it returns a disproportionately large number of results in, for example, a Google search. To get a more realistic picture of the actual usage, try searching for the different terms on the website of DN or another of the large newspapers.
> 
> For the sake of completeness, I would like to mention that although the name _Bandaríki Ameríku_—or more frequently _Bandaríki Norður-Ameríku, BNA_—exists in Icelandic, it is used, especially nowadays, even more rarely than _Amerikas förenta stater_ in Swedish. In 99 percent of the cases, the term used is _Bandaríkin_. The abbreviation _USA_ (or even _BNA_) is sometimes used to save space in tables, advertisements, etc.


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## Segorian

Gavril said:


> I only mentioned _Bandaríki Ameríku_ (the "long" version of _Bandaríkin_) because the second word in it is a proper noun, and so I would expect it to stay capitalized in all cases. In the case of _Bandaríki Norður-Ameríku_, _norður_ is not a proper noun by itself, but it seems be capitalized along with _Ameríku_ because of the hyphen.
> 
> Are there any place names in Icelandic like _Förenta stater_, where the second word is not a proper noun? If so, does Icelandic capitalize the second word or put it in lower case?



Yes, one way of looking at it is to say that _norður_ is capitalized because of the hyphen, but basically it is because _Norður-Ameríka_ is a proper noun and therefore the first letter needs to be put in upper case. As for place names in Icelandic that are like _Förenta staterna_ in Swedish, one could mention _Dóminíska lýðveldið_ and _Sameinuðu arabísku furstadæmin_.


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## Gavril

Segorian said:


> Yes, one way of looking at it is to say that _norður_ is capitalized because of the hyphen, but basically it is because _Norður-Ameríka_ is a proper noun and therefore the first letter needs to be put in upper case.



I guess that the hyphen alone is not enough of an explanation: for example, the word _eyja _remains lowercase in _Ellesmere-eyja_.


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