Lucia:
>Actually, the convention of capitalization in old english that you
>identify in the quote from the constitution below is reserved for nouns.
>As in German, all nouns are capitalized. I don't know when this was
>changed.

Exhaustive paleontological studies have shown that before the mastery of
fire, ALL CAPS were used--there is overwhelming evidence that this was true
of both vowels and consonents. Inexplicably, some forty thousand years ago
in areas of Europe we find a tendency (not unequivical but _very_
statistically significant) for OnlY ThE FirsT AnD LasT LetterS OF EacH WorD
TO BE CapS. Less than a decade ago this was interpreted as evidence of
highly evolved religious ideation, but several competing theories have
arisen compelling the entire field to take a fresh look at the meaning of
the Alpha-Omega CaP (AOCP) style. Though still a contentious area of
vehement disagreement, the SmegmA theory has become one of the most
favored, which, in very simplified terms, states that the AOCP was the
result of puberty rituals preformed on young males. This is all the more
ironic to present day researchers familiar with the history of the AOCP
style since early efforts had mistakenly considered the AOCP to NOT be a
true development since only two letter words had been uncovered in European
sites. These conflicted radically with African (and _very_ ironically the
recent and puzzling Asian unearthings!) digs where two letter words were
infrequent and often part of a tonal morphology which was intially very
difficult to decipher. Modern computer analyses have helped to clarify the
whole controversy and provide stunning support for the SmegmA theory.

Of course, none of these cooked scientists realize that it was the
widespread use of cooking which lead to the AOCP. The pure words,
previously in nature's perfect ALL CAPS form, became denatured and overly
attractive to the human sense of vision. Once our ancestors saw the AOCP
they simply couldn't go back to ALL CAPS. The further alterations of
capitalization style seen in the neolithic (First Caps Only But Always
(FCOBA)) and later under the influence of industrialization (Only the first
word in each sentence (OFWES)) were simply further steps away from ALL CAPS
perfection.

I only bring this up because the recent discussion of the so-called "King's
English" variant must be seen simply as a local abberation. It turns out
that both Gregg and Lucia are correct, but myopically so. In a sense this
is easy to understand and I wish no one to consider that I am dismissing
their contribution to this matter. Indeed, many astute and respected
historical capitologists have made simliar mistakes (many of them
embarrassingly documented in early scientific journals). And, of course, we
have folks like Emily Dickenson who so ruthlessly exploited such
prevarications under the guise of "artistic lisence".

The internet has shown us revivals in many of these archaic cap schemes. Is
it only coincidence (or perhaps providence) that many so-called "newbies"
are apt to resort, for reasons which aren't clear even to themselves, to
the hunter-gatherer ALL CAPS form? And only to be tolds they are shouting.
Ha! Shouting they may be, but the TRUTH of NATURE'S WAY will not be
silenced by any mailing list.

copyright 1998
The National Football League

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