Accents and Cases in English

choi

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(1) Accents

Southerner's accent causes constant comment. Ask Amy, Sept. 17, 2010.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/tribu/askamy/ct-live-0917-amy-20100917,0,3544609.column

My comment: Some people in Boston think director/actor Ben Affleck unnecessarily exaggerates Boston accent is his just released movie Town.

(2) Cases (upper and lower)

The second letter in Annie's Maibox dated Sept. 14, 2010.
http://www.creators.com/advice/annies-mailbox/stepmom-s-baby-mania-dangerous.html

My comment:
(a) Most likely, the letter refers to

StudlyCaps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StudlyCaps
(According to the Jargon File "ThE oRigiN and SigNificaNce of thIs pRacTicE iS oBscuRe." It appears to have been popularized among adolescent users during the BBS and early WWW eras of online culture, as a form of rebellion against the traditional rules of capitalization.)

* studly (adj; from noun stud): "slang : attractively masculine: HUNKY"
www.m-w.com

(b) When I read the above letter, I remembered I always wondered why documents of American Revolution era displayed upper case appeared in the first letter of a few words in the MIDDLE of a sentence.

(i) Capitalization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalization
(section 1.3 Noun: "In German and Luxembourgish (a close relative of German and one of the three official languages of Luxembourg), all nouns are capitalized. This was also the practice in Danish before a spelling reform in 1948. It was also done in 18th century English (as with Gulliver's Travels and most of the original 1787 United States Constitution).")

(ii) How to Read 18th Century British-American Writing. undated.
http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/writing.html
("Some Characteristics of 18th century British-American Handwriting: Upper case letters were used to begin nouns as well as to begin sentences.")

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