# Capitonyms - do they occur in other languages? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 24, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984 "2016-02-24T16:27:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/1 "2016-02-24T16:27:29Z")
A capitonym is a word that changes meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) based on whether the first letter is capitalized. Of course this only applies when the word is not the first in a sentence, where either usage would be capitalized. Gotta love English. Examples include: _Same pronunciation, different meaning_ China - a country china - dishes March - a month march - a form of ambulation _Different pronunciation and meaning_ Polish (POE lish)- having to do with Poland polish (PAH lish)- the act of making something shiny (or the substance used to make it shiny) Does this occur in any other language(s) besides English? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/2 "2016-02-24T16:55:43Z")
Sure. The word _rosbif_ in French literally means roast beef, but _Rosbif_ is a derogatory term for an English person. Not sure it would always be capitalized in the latter sense, though. Most alphabets/non-alphabetical scripts don’t have capital letters, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/3 "2016-02-24T17:17:07Z")
In German some declensions of nouns are only distinguished from a conjugation of a verb by capitalization. _Helft den armen Vögeln!_ = help the poor birds! _Helft den Armen vögeln!_ = help the poor people fuck! _Der gefangene Floh_ = the captive flea _Der Gefangene floh_ = the prisoner fled. _Die nackte Sucht zu quälen_ = the naked addiction to torment _Die Nackte sucht zu quälen_ = the naked woman seeks to torment _Ich habe liebe Genossen_ = I have dear comrades. _Ich habe Liebe genossen_ = I have enjoyed love. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/4 "2016-02-24T17:33:22Z")
The problem with this question is that these examples are mostly\* not “a word that changes meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) based on whether the first letter is capitalized”, but rather cases of two different words that by chance have converged on the same spelling; that is, [homographs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homograph). There are lots of homographs in English, most of which don’t have capitalization as a marker; e.g., “row a boat” vs “a row of boats”. The capitalization thing is relevant only insofar as it helps narrow down which homograph is the right one, because English usage capitalizes certain categories of words (proper names, countries, months, etc). So for your question, most languages have homographs, including the ones that don’t use alphabets (or which use alphabets that don’t have capitalization). If a language uses capitalization to mark certain categories of words, then it can also have “capitonyms”. But they’re not a separate special thing, just a particular subset of homographs. \*The exception being China/china, where the material is named after the country. ---
**Author:** ![Abner\_Ravenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Abner\_Ravenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abner_Ravenwood)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/5 "2016-02-24T17:39:41Z")
In Spanish Lima - capital of Perú lima - lime China - the country china - Asian woman, feminine singular adjective for Chinese china - orange (the fruit, not the color and mainly in Puerto Rico) Argentina - the country argentina - Argentinian woman, feminine singular adjective for Argentinian ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/6 "2016-02-24T18:31:20Z")
> [@Abner\_Ravenwood](#): > > In Spanish > > Argentina - the country > argentina - Argentinian woman, feminine singular adjective for Argentinian “argentina” also means “silvery”. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/7 "2016-02-24T18:32:57Z")
I thought of this topic when I helped my uncle Jack off a horse. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/8 "2016-02-24T20:20:21Z")
The Scandinavian languages have _Gud_ (monotheistic God)/_gud_ (any deity). ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/9 "2016-02-24T22:05:46Z")
> [@JR\_Brown](#): > > The problem with this question is that these examples are mostly\* not “a word that changes meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) based on whether the first letter is capitalized”, but rather cases of two different words that by chance have converged on the same spelling; that is, [homographs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homograph). The problem with this answer is that you are discussing a very different thing. A [capitonym](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitonym) is exactly as I defined it. A [homograph](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/homograph) is similar, but different, as capitalization has no bearing on the meaning, only context. Examples are lead, bear and roll. > [@JR\_Brown](#): > > There are lots of homographs in English, most of which don’t have capitalization as a marker; e.g., “row a boat” vs “a row of boats”. That’s exactly the difference - capitonyms _require_ capitalization as a marker. It’s what makes them what they are. > [@JR\_Brown](#): > > \*The exception being China/china, where the material is named after the country. The etymology is correct, but in this case irrelevant. The word is still a capitonym. The wiki article I linked to mentions German having many capitonyms, Spanish having fewer. I wondered about other languages. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/10 "2016-02-24T23:51:18Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > The Scandinavian languages have _Gud_ (monotheistic God)/_gud_ (any deity). We also have God (a name for the Christian deity)/god (any deity) ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/11 "2016-02-25T00:10:16Z")
Portuguese actually has one that matches one in English, but they are completely different unrelated words between the two languages. English: Turkey (a country) turkey (a bird) Portuguese: Peru (a country) peru (a bird - turkey, in fact) As far as I understand, in both instances the bird was named after the country. The English somehow thought that turkeys came from Turkey, and the Portuguese thought they came from Peru. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/12 "2016-02-25T01:02:03Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > The problem with this answer is that you are discussing a very different thing. A [capitonym](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitonym) is exactly as I defined it. A [homograph](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/homograph) is similar, but different, as capitalization has no bearing on the meaning, only context. I dispute the “very different thing”; capitonyms are a special case of [homographs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homograph). The Wiki page you link to even says so explicitly (“A capitonym is a form of homograph and – when the two forms are pronounced differently – also of heteronym.”). I think the definition given on the Wiki page (which you quoted in the OP) is misleading, since there is apparently no actual requirement that capitonyms be one word with two meanings, and many examples that it lists are the opposite, two distinct words that share a spelling. (Or maybe there is inconsistent use of “word” as a unit of language and “word” as a unit of text…) In terms of your question re whether they exist in other languages, I think my answer stands: all written languages have homographs, so any (alphabetical) language that uses capitalization to mark word categories will have them. The more a language relies on capitalization as a category marker, the more likely it would seem to have plentiful capitonyms; **Mops** has given some German examples, and I think German will be a fertile source because of its very broad use of capitalization to mark nouns. In any case, the term “capitonym” seems to be something made up for a “humorous things about the English language” type of book (specifically, Richard Lederer, _Crazy English_) and I’m not convinced it is a particularly useful distinction vs just “homograph”. The capitalization angle is an artifact of writing conventions; in “RIOTING RESTAURANT PATRONS IN CHINA CAUSE MASSIVE CHINA BREAKAGE”, there is no capitalization difference but the China/china meaning is still different. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/13 "2016-02-25T01:25:44Z")
[Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo) I suppose there’s any number of these in closely-related (e.g. Romance) languages if you consider things like names. For example, French Pierre (Peter), and pierre (rock). The former derives from the latter, Biblically. > [@Loopus](#): > > turkey (a bird) French: dinde - turkey d’Inde - from India ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/14 "2016-02-25T04:33:23Z")
“job” and “Job” (from the Bible, usually pronounced like jobe). [Job (biblical figure) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_%28biblical_figure%29) ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/15 "2016-02-25T14:59:26Z")
> [@JR\_Brown](#): > > All written languages have homographs, so any (alphabetical) language that uses capitalization to mark word categories will have them. The more a language relies on capitalization as a category marker, the more likely it would seem to have plentiful capitonyms; **Mops** has given some German examples, and I think German will be a fertile source because of its very broad use of capitalization to mark nouns. Thanks. The question is specifically about capitonyms in other languages. That is, words where the meaning and, in some cases, pronunciation changes based on capitalization of the first letter (except when used as the first word of a sentence). It is not about words where capitalization makes no difference. More examples are appreciated. Another from English is: Lent - a time period in Christianity lent - past tense of 'lend" ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/16 "2016-02-25T17:57:15Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > “job” and “Job” (from the Bible, usually pronounced like jobe). [Job (biblical figure) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_%28biblical_figure%29) Also “jerb” as in “they took our jobs!” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/17 "2016-02-26T00:27:58Z")
In French, uncapitalised \*terre \*means soil, ground, earth. Capitalised \*Terre \*means Planet Earth. Same as in English, really. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/18 "2016-02-26T01:03:34Z")
In the news recently… Papa - Pope papa - potato ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/19 "2016-02-26T01:46:33Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > In the news recently… > > Papa - Pope > papa - potato Mi papa tiene 47 anos. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984/20 "2016-02-26T02:01:18Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > In the news recently… > > Papa - Pope > papa - potato That’s _el Papa_ for the Pope and _la papa_ for potato. Not just the capitalization, but also the gender. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capitonyms-do-they-occur-in-other-languages/746984.md?page=2)