Am 2000-06-16 um 11:42 h hat Antoine Leca geschrieben: > should it be ,,deutsch'', or ,,Deutsch'', in such a context? The context, if I remember correctly, was a list of countries, so it should rather be "Deutschland" (with a capital "D", cf. <http://www.ids-mannheim.de/grammis/reform/d3-1.html#P55>). Now, the question still is, should it be "deutsch", or "Deutsch". This, indeed, depends on the context. If a sentence commences with that (ar indeed any other) word, it is capitalized, as in "Deutsch", cf. <http://www.ids-mannheim.de/grammis/reform/d2.html#P54>. This also holds for headings and titels, cf. <http://www.ids-mannheim.de/grammis/reform/d2.html#P53>, even if a titel is quoted within a sentence, cf. <http://www.ids-mannheim.de/grammis/reform/d2.html#53E1>. This also holds for list items, as in the original example, cf. item 5 under <http://www.ids-mannheim.de/grammis/reform/d2.html#P54>. In normal text, the spelling of language names is a bit tricky, as in some cases they are considred adjectives (small initial), in other cases nouns (capital initial). (It's the border-cases that render a set of rules tricky; and natural languages seem to have plenty of those.) - If the word is obviously used as a noun, it is capitalized, as in "Er spricht ein gut verst�ndliches Deutsch" (where "Deutsch" is the kernel of a full-fledged noun phrase, complete with article "ein" and attribute "gut verst�ndliches"), cf. item 1 under <http://www.ids-mannheim.de/grammis/reform/d3-2.html#P57>. - If the word is used as an adjective, either attributive as in "Ich trinke deutsches Bier", or adverbial, as in "Ich rede deutsch mit dir", it is written with a small initial. - Now the really tricky part are sentences such as "Sie sprechen deutsch miteinander" (= "They converse in German.") or "Er unterrichtet deutsch" (= "He delivers his lessons in German"), vs. "Sie sprechen Deutsch" (= "The speak German"), or "Er unterrichtet Deutsch" (= "He gives German lessons"), cf. <http://www.ids-mannheim.de/grammis/reform/d3-2.html#57E2>. For more examples, cf. <http://www.ids-mannheim.de/grammis/reform/wort-d.html>. Ich hoffe, Sie verstehen diesen Absatz, auch wenn er deutsch geschrieben ist, und k�nnen nun etwas besser Deutsch schreiben ;-) Best wishes, Otto Stolz
