Re: Klezmer/klezmer

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

Well, capitalizing or not is not really a matter of grammar; it's a matter 
of what's usually referred to as "style"--but not in the sense of writing 
(or decorating, or playing, etc.) "with style" or "stylishly."  Rather, in 
the sense of editorial styling used in the title of Strunk & White's classic 
"The Elements of Style" or the University of Chicago's "Manual of Style" 
(according to which, btw, those book titles would be in italics)--which is 
virtually the, or a, Bible for book editors.  (A given publisher of books or 
magazines will frequently have a "house style," according to which, e.g., 
certain words are capitalized or not; italicized or not; etc.)

According to Chicago (= The Chicago Manual of Style) (7.69), "[n]ouns and 
adjectives designating ... musical and artistic movements, styles, and 
schools are capitalized if they are derived from proper nouns.  Others are 
*usually* [emphasis added] lower-cased ..."

So:  "klezmer," lower-cased (like "jazz," which is actually given as an 
example in Chicago).

But it's not exactly hard-and-fast, right-and-wrong--it's not a matter of 
grammar (which, actually, is not itself always hard-and-fast, either); hence 
the "usually."

Hope that helps,

Your obedient servant, the editor,

Robert Cohen


>Which merely proves that some people don't know proper English grammar and
>capitalization.

>Lori Cahan-Simon wrote:
>
> > But I've seen "Jazz" capitalized in similar situations.
> > Lor
> >
> > Joe Kurland wrote:
> >
> > > Since klezmer means musician (albeit a particular type of musician),
> > > I see no reason to capitalize it in English.  Yiddish, of course,
> > > when written in English gets capitalized as any language name or
> > > ethnic group would.
> > >
> > > At 1:22 PM -0500 1/7/02, Lori Cahan-Simon wrote:

> > > >Here's another nit-picky question from me:  When writing about the
> > > >music, does one capitalize the "K"?  Is it Klezmer music or klezmer
> > > >music?  Does one play klezmer or Klezmer?


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