Why is English not capitalized?

[Wakaranai]

All other languages are capitalized in Japanese except English why? :?

[SkaKid0911]

I dont understand your question. How do you capitalize something in Japanese?

EDIT: Do you mean English is in hiragana as opposed to katakana, えいご
and not エイゴ? (if that is what you mean, I don't know)

[-悪魔-]

You're asking the wrong question, because other languages such as japanese lack capitlization to begin with.

[Wakaranai]

In all of my Japanese language books when you right languages in Romaji English is the only one that is never capitlized. French is Furansugo and Chinese is Chugokugo but English is eigo and all of the books say that eigo is never capatlized why.

I have heard people say that Romaji does not exist and to learn sounds by Hiragana and Katakana and Kanji. Most books wants you to learn by Romaji. Why is this?

Sorry for the stupid questions but I dont understand.

[Glenn]

In all of my Japanese language books when you right languages in Romaji English is the only one that is never capitlized. French is Furansugo and Chinese is Chugokugo but English is eigo and all of the books say that eigo is never capatlized why.

Hmm, I'm wondering why any of them are capitalized.

I have heard people say that Romaji does not exist and to learn sounds by Hiragana and Katakana and Kanji. Most books wants you to learn by Romaji. Why is this?

Probably because it allows you to learn lexicon and syntax without having knowledge of the writing system. I think that it is fine when you are first starting out, but you should learn the kana as quickly as possible.

[Keiichi]

I've no idea why any of them are captalized either. Maybe they just capitalize the first letter of the ones that are written in katakana? For that, I usually see the whole word being capitalized when written in romaji to distinguish the difference from hiragana.

[Glenn]

I've no idea why any of them are captalized either. Maybe they just capitalize the first letter of the ones that are written in katakana?

I thought that at first too, but he said that chuugokugo is usually capitalized, so that kills that theory. :clueless:

[Elizabeth]

Do those books refer to the country of England as イギリス as opposed to 英国？ That would be the only rational distinction I can come up with....

[Wakaranai]

Sorry Elizabeth All I see is ???? Is there uposed to be Kanji there or something?
What program do I need to view it?
No It juists says that English is in small caps.

[mdchachi]

I didn't realize there are capitalization rules for romaji. Most likely, it's just somebody's convention that stuck. There's no need to spend a lot of time on this issue because "real" Japanese isn't written in romaji anyway.

I have heard people say that Romaji does not exist and to learn sounds by Hiragana and Katakana and Kanji. Most books wants you to learn by Romaji. Why is this?

They think that beginners will be less discouraged and will learn faster at the beginning if they can use a familiar alphabet. Also because many language courses are focused more on speaking & grammar than on reading/writing. That trend is changing and there are many beginning textbooks that start off with katakana/hiragana (which is what Japanese kids do).

[Wakaranai]

That trend is changing and there are many beginning textbooks that start off with katakana/hiragana (which is what Japanese kids do).

Yes I have seen 2 or 3 books like this at Barns and Nobel.
There was one that I was going to get it had Every thing written in Katakana/hiragana/kanji/Romanji/And English. It was cool but I did not have the cash for it.