What is letter case?
Q: What is letter case?
A: Letter case is the difference between uppercase/capital letters and lowercase letters for certain writing systems.
Q: Why is it called uppercase and lowercase letters?
A: The name comes from letters on a printing press, where uppercase letters were stored on top of the lowercase letters in a drawer. Their formal names are "majuscule" and "minuscule" in the same order.
Q: Which alphabets have letter case?
A: Writing systems that have letter case include the Latin alphabet, the Greek alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet.
Q: How did lowercase letters become a part of alphabets?
A: When the first alphabets were made, they only had capital letters. Over time, especially during the Middle Ages, lowercase letters were made to write more quickly.
Q: Do all languages have clear differences between capital and lowercase letters?
A: No, other than Greek and Latin, European languages made no clear differences between capital and lowercase letters until the year 1300.
Q: Can you give an example of different capitalization rules in two languages?
A: Yes, for example, German always capitalizes nouns, while English only capitalizes proper nouns, so while German would write "the automobile" as "das Auto", English would not do the same.
Q: In what circumstance nearly all languages with letter case capitalize the first letter of the first word?
A: Nearly all languages with letter case capitalize the first letter of the first word of every sentence.
