Aikido and capitalization

I've seen it both capitalized and not. For instance, in Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere it's not capitalized. In The Principles of Aikido it is. The dictionary says no. Most aikido-related web sites I've seen do capitalize it.

I'm wondering if this capitalization of aikido is grammatically incorrect.

Also, what about styles of aikido? For instance, yoshinkan aikido. Is it Yoshinkan Aikido, Yoshinkan aikido, or yoshinkan aikido?

FWIW, my take on it is this:

If you speak of 'karate' or 'judo' they are seldom capitalized, as they are rather generic terms. But if you say 'Shotokan Karatedo' or 'Kodokan Judo' then they become proper nouns, rather like a person's name, and should be capitalized.

So, it'd be 'aikido' versus 'Aikikai Aikido' or 'Shinshintoitsu AIkido' ...

YMMV.

Chuck

Does the Japanese language use capital letters?

Mark Johnston wrote: Does the Japanese language use capital letters?

Nope. We only run into capitalization probs when we romanize the kanji and kana.

Chuck

Hi Chuck,
If I may take a slight detour off the main topic. I noticed your website showed you to be in Grafenwoehr, Bavaria. Do they still make Grafenwoehr Light (sorry forgot Deutsch for light)?

Way back when it came in those nice little brown bottles with a ceramic stopper. We use to send one of our road crew shuttling down there buy a bunch of cases & very quickly send him out again - He's trucking back & forth from Nuremberg, Stuttgart, and well the rest of the towns started getting blurry after that

Cheers,
Gene

Interesting points, however when I say "Jiff peanut butter", I just capitalize Jiff.

It seems like it should be Yoshinkan aikido, if anything, unless it's the name of an organization or a dojo, like "Yoshinkan Aikido USA" or "Yoshinkan Aikido, Inc." (just making up examples). However, if I'm just talking about the Yoshinkan style of aikido, I'd just say Yoshinkan aikido. That is, if Yoshinkan is even supposed to be capitalized to begin with.

Bah, capitalization...

I think it's like saying "mother." If you're referring to mothers in general, you'd not cap. it. However, if you refer to your Mother or someone else's Mother, you'd cap. it (I don't know if I was supposed to there though).

I think if you refer to one Aikido, you'd cap. it. If you refer to Aikido in general, you shouldn't (but I still do, because Aikido is the shizzat.) However, I always cap Judo and Karate to...because there very close to being the shizzat.

The only reason you capitalize mother is if you're calling someone by that name. For instance: Please wash my laundry, Mother. You wouldn't say Joe's Mother is hot. So it's not really the same thing.

Yeah, hotness is definitely of significance here. The hotter Joe's Mother is, the larger the capitalization...smoking hot requires triple spacing, where as, "she's alright for her age" requires single spacing.

Interesting. Personally, I never capitalize soccer or rugby but always do so for Aikido. Grammar says I should not, but I like to, I guess.

Gene Martinelli wrote: Do they still make Grafenwoehr Light (sorry forgot Deutsch for light)?

Heya Gene! Graf Light (leicht), nope, never seen it. As far as I know there's not an active brewery in Graf, closest is Eschenbach.

[/quote]Way back when it came in those nice little brown bottles with a ceramic stopper.[/quote]

Flippies! Yep. Got a handful of 'em in the pantry right now. Mostly the older (and older-style) beers.

When you were here, did you ever get your hands on zoiglbier?

Chuck

Jean de Rochefort wrote: Yeah, hotness is definitely of significance here. The hotter Joe's Mother is, the larger the capitalization...smoking hot requires triple spacing, where as, "she's alright for her age" requires single spacing.

Dammit Jean! You made me snarf all over.......(still laughing )
Lan