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Capitalization
Esperanto capitalizes the first letter of a word when:
- The word is the first one in a sentence. In the title of a book, movie, etc., the first word is also capitalized, but the remaining words may or may not be, according to the writer’s preference. Non-initial la, however, is never capitalized:
Ĉi tio ne estas pipo. This is not a pipe. La mirinda destino de Amelio Poulain Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain La kodo de Da Vinĉi The Da Vinci Code - The word is a the name of a person, country, geographical region, or society — but not the name of an institution, nationality or language. On the other hand, adjectives derived from the names of countries are sometimes capitalized (Usona, Kanada), sometimes not (meksika). “Esperanto”, and the names of other artificial languages, however, is capitalized, as is “Esperantist”:
Aŭdreo Tautou Audrey Tautou Francio France la franca French (language) Alzaco Alsace alzaca Alsatian katolikismo Catholicism katolico Catholic luterano lutheran Volapukaĵo Volapükism - The word is a title being used in lieu of a personal name — though this, too, varies according to preference:
Sinjoro Retejestro Mr. Webmaster laŭ ordono de la Reĝo by order of the King