Should Species Names be Capitalised?
 

[Note: I don't usually post polls. I've probably posted one in my life, so I'm not quite sure how do to this.]

Just something I've been wondering since I saw the same sort of thing being put into practice on another game to which I'm looking forward.
Should species names, such as mudokun, slig, glukkon, etc. be capitalised?

I say that they shouldn't, as they are spoken in the same way as we say 'human' or 'duck'. We don't capitalise our race, but we capitalise God, which would suggest that 'Shrykull' would be capitalised.

So, should the species names in Oddworld be capitalised?

[BAH! I wanted to go back because I made a mistake on the poll, but it just posted the damn thing. What!? Now I can't edit a poll in. This is silly.]

Very good topic, mate. This is a question which should have been asked years ago, but as far as I remember, it hasn’t.

In my opinion, the species names of races—like Mudokons, Glukkons, Wolvarks—should always be capitalized. These names refer as much to a race of people as a biological species, and are comparable to terms like Americans, Japanese, Phanariotes, or Norvicensians. This is especially important if the race’s name is the same as its position in society. It is important to distinguish between an outlaw and an Outlaw in case you come across one which isn’t necessarily the other. This would also apply to Interns and Chroniclers.

Names of wildlife species I always capitalize because it’s the Oddworld style of writing. I would feel as dirty doing otherwise as I would if I spelt Labor Eggs ‘Labour Eggs’. I find it perfectly acceptable for Oddworld to have its own literary customs. It helps to reflect both the culture of the universe, and the customs of its creators. This is why words like ‘ya’ and ‘klutz’ are more established on Oddworld than they are in formal English.

For Oddworld species that share their name with Earth species, things seem a bit more complicated. I’ve never seen ‘birds’ or ‘bats’ capitalized by OWI, whereas ‘Rats’ usually is—but not always.

A question related to this would be ‘Should we end plurals in “s” or “z”?’, to which my answer would be ‘with “s”, every time.’ :p

Even though I don't think the races should be capitalised, I still find it hard not to capitalise them. It just doesn't seem right when I don't capitalise them. I have mixed responses to this. To oppose your comment, I don't think I could find myself spelling it 'Labor Eggs' because that's not how I've been brought up to spell. I even find it hard to spell colour 'color' when I want to change the colour of my text on an American based forum (in the tags).

In regards to your comments on Interns (interns), Outlaws (outlaws) and Chroniclers (chroniclers), do we have solid proof that these are the names of the species? I can understand capitalising them when saying something like 'This Wolvark is an outlaw' or 'This Outlaw is an Douchebag', but saying that they are the actual names for the species would be suggesting that they were born specifically to hold down that occupation. I haven't been on this forum for too long, so if there's anything in the Q&A thread on this that I haven't read, that's probably why.

Well, off my own topic a bit there. When you said we would treat the capitalisation of Mudokuns/Glukkons etc. more as country inhabitants (Americans was your example), rather than a race (Humans was my example), are you saying that the different races should be treated (in capitalisation) as if to be all in the same race that just look different to each other (Such as how Chinese people look different to British people)? Perhaps with Mudokun's, Glukkons and all other speaking creatures, however with creatures such as Scrabs (scrabs), Paramites (paramites) and all other non-speaking, more animal-like creatures of Oddworld, the capitalisation should be treated as we treat the capitalisation of ducks, and like you said, bees and bats.

And if you wanted to know where I got the idea for this, it is the upcoming 360 game 'Mass Effect'. All names of races of aliens are not capitalised for the same reasons stated above in the first post. It made me start to speculate how this would work in Oddworld, which spawned the thought of this topic.

I always capitalise them anyway. Although as Max said, it's a very good topic, Squeek. They are names of living things, but on Earth we don't tend to capitalise names like 'human' or 'ape' unless they're used at the start of sentences. I wondered why people capitalise Oddworldian things other than making the forum look tidy.

I know how you feel about American vs. Commonwealth spelling. I used the ‐our spelling for a while, but eventually decided it felt kind of cheeky to start changing Oddworld’s spelling. Outlaw, Intern, and Chronicler are the correct species names, are and the names always used to refer to members of those races.

I’m not trying to suggest that different developed Oddworld races are members of the same species, but the way have evolved distinct cultures is comparable to the emergence of different Earth cultures, even if most Oddworld races serve more to reflect aspects of humanity than human cultures. On Earth, we usually refer to a people by their demonym, an adaptation of the name of the area they originate from. ‘Mudokon’ is a demonym because it is derived from the name of the country/continent Mudos (and not the other way around). I’m not assuming that other developed species’ names are demonyms, but the reason for capitalizing them is just the same.

It’s nothing to do with tidiness or OWF, it’s the capitalization used by OWI.

I pondered this a while ago...

I always like to capitalise, and usually do when talking about different species, like Stickleback etc.

I believe that the 'birds' and 'bats' references are not capitalised as they are not referring to a specific species, but the word is used as a generalisation ('bears' 'cats' etc.), whereas Ratz is known to refer to a specific species ('Black Rat' 'Brown Bear' etc.), and so should be capitialised. Probably in Oddworld there's a number of bat species (as well as the flying ones we saw, I'd believe Boombats are a stalk from the original bat ancestry), as well as bird ones (as well as numerous wild birds other than the doves we see, a the very least there are Clakkerz, though those suck).

Sticklebacks aren’t a single species. :p

I capitalise them all by habit, but Max makes a good point. The intelligent species are capitalised because they are a race, as for the wildlife species, I have no idea. The fact that species names are not capitalised on Earth is also a good point, but since Oddworld Inhabitants capitalise them I guess I just adopted that habit.
However I do tend to spell things -our as it's a habit of mine already, even though OWI spells them -or. Hm.

No, we dont why should they... besides why do all the creatures on oddworld speak english ?? why is there not a language for each race like there is here on Earth ??

What, like spelling Ratz as 'Rats'?

I always saw Ratz as being both a species name and a pluralised noun. I don't remember OWI ever mentioning 'Rat' in singular but I assume that would be the word to use.

I believe it was here:
http://www.oddworld.com/universe/wil...1/ow_cg01.html
And yes, the singular of 'ratz' is 'rat'.

The creatures of Oddworld do not speak English. They speak whichever language the people speak in the country that they're sold. In Spain they speak Spanish, in France they speak French, et cetera.
Another reason is that it was designed by Americans (who, as I'm sure you knew, speak English).

Three-Spined Stickleback then, I'm just usually referring to that species, and so don't bother putting the rest in.

And don't you even dare start lecturing me on subspecies.

Ahem, anyway...
Language? Oddworldians have obviously come to an arrangement where they all speak the same language, Mudokons being taught Glukkon language since they are to become slaves, and the same for Sligs, though this would not explain how Munch could speak the same language. It may have eben estabilished, years ago, that they all speak the same language for beneficial reasons, otherwise one race (probably Mudokons) learned to effectively create a language, and this was imitated by the others.
Out of game reason is obvious, otherwise we wouldn't know what they were saying. Few game designers bother making an alternative language that needs subtitles, and even then, usually (if always) only for a singular race/species whatever, while most of the game inhabitants in that game would still speak english/french/spanish/scottish or another recognisable language to us.

I've always capitalized species, merely so that they can be differenciated from Earthen words (E.g. intern and Intern). It also just seems more polite fo some reason, I cant think why. I suppose it could be like typing 'God' instead of 'god'.
I see your point, and I've wondered about that myself. We have to remember that we don't yet know how old Oddworld is, or it's speed of evolution/develoment. My theory is that those species naturally found themselves doinpg those jobs, and over time, they got named as their occupation, and they may have had another, much older name before this happened. A really, really, really big stereotype, if you will.

Wow I never considered that. Props to you Sparky.

Oh and btw can't wait till your comic comes out in the summer of 2009.

On topic: I capitalize all species names. It makes it easier for me to write.

I found myself copying what I saw in official texts, no matter what sense it made. So: mudokons, sligs, steef and animal species not capitalised; Ratz other species, live ammo (discluding fuzzles) all capitalised.

I do the same for items pluralised with "Z"s and "S"s.

But I agree, we do need consistency. However, capitalising "slig", to me, feels strangely obscene.

And from one who knows: when writing about these creatures the page gets incredibly messy with so many capitalised words, and they come up alot in Oddworld fiction.

My suggestion would be to capitalise them when specifically mentioning the species, in a list, description or otherwise treating them as a race. But in passing, in the main body of text where these words are simply part of the flow, keep them in lowercase. Although special care has to be taken with Interns and Outlaws, it isn't difficult to establish them as a species in exactly the same way and then continue using the word in the conventional manner. If you have any competence in writing at all, your reader will know what you are talking about.

As for s/z, I'd abolish "Z" entirely, except in names (eg "Vykkerz Labs") and specified examples, such as "ratz".

I'm with Max the Mug, I think they should be capitalized because it reflects the culture and its like Japanese, African, Caucasian that sort of thing.

You may present the species name however you like because it seems to make no difference to anybody but grammatically no, mudokon gabbit scrab and so on are species - nouns - they only need capitalizing if you're German or something, they are not cultures.

(I wasn't trying to offend Germans, they capitalize their nouns)

That's a good point, indeed it makes no grammatical difference whether you put a capital letter or not. However, I just do it for Interns, Outlaws etc so as not to confuse them with their occupational counterparts. And I do it with the other species, Mudokons, Gabbits etc for consitency. And seeing as they are sapient ('thinking') species, it also shows a little more respect.
For example, my fan character Calvin Castro is an Intern, but not an intern.

I don't think I'll ever get my head around that one but I guess that way I can't disagree.

Hehe. What I mean is that Calvin's species is Intern, but his occupation is not intern. Does that make sense?

Yes it does. Did you capitilize species or occupation?