To which case do I give the first letters of different race names?

[The Neon Seal]

Hello all!

*waves happily*

I am a writer of Science Fantasy and I was wondering which case I should use for the first letter of each species. For example, we often refer to ourselves as human, using a lower case. Would this be the same for fictitious races, and if not, should I refer to humans as 'Humans', given that the narrator himself is only part-human?

 

[Bowler1]

I'm going to be brave and attempt this before Judge comes along.

It would depend I would say.

For example, Irish and Arab people are clearly a distinct race, so capitals.
Being human is not a thing, so lower case.
'I will destroy all Humans.' - discussing a race of people, so I would use a capital letter - but not for being human.

Time to go, Judge will be along soon and I can't be seen playing with the adults.

 

[alchemist]

We could split hairs all day, but you can probably use either as long as you're consistent.

 

[The Neon Seal]

We could split hairs all day, but you can probably use either as long as you're consistent.

So, either all races (sentient species) in uppercase or not, then?

 

[The Judge]

Your courage is exemplary, Bowler. We'll have you sitting at the big boys' table any day now...

Hello and Welcome to the Chrons, TNS! Bowler1 has a penchant for RAY GUNS, so do be careful around him.

I would use capital letters for all other sentient races/species, and even human colonists from other planets/satellites if they referred to themselves by the planet/colony name eg Ganymedians. I'd still use lower case for humans, though, even when written from the perspective of non-humanoids or those of mixed race -- just as I'd use lower case for the words "people" and "persons" -- but a capital if the humans are referred to as Earthlings or Terrans.

 

[alchemist]

So, either all races (sentient species) in uppercase or not, then?

I'd say so. It'd look better with upper case, although if the races are familiar to the characters (e.g. dwarves, orcs) it feels better in lower case. But consistency is best.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I think upper casing them would be pretty awkward looking. Earthlings is fine, capitalised, humans feels wrong. So it might be about the precision of the term, if that makes any sense. I'm not holding out much hope.

 

[Ursa major]

If it's a first contact situation, avoid the accusative case at all costs, as accusing aliens of something will probably undermine goodwill!


At the moment, we don't tend to capitalise species, but we do nationalities, so first try working on this basis and see whether it works.

 

[HareBrain]

At the moment, we don't tend to capitalise species, but we do nationalities, so first try working on this basis and see whether it works.

This was my thinking, since we capitalise place-names, so any group named after that place should be capitalised too.

But TJ suggested capitalising for sentient species above, and I wonder if that's a widely accepted distinction?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

All Aliens live on planets they call Earth and call themselves The People, or human.

Capitalise Nationalities, if their planet has but a single government and no nations, nor concept of Race (which is pretty nutty, only Tribe makes sense), then the Alien's Species Name might be capitalised. If they have multiple Nations OR "races" then the Alien species isn't capitalised, but the Nations and/or races are.

Of course this is only for English. Some languages have no upper/lower case. The alien's language may not. Some languages may vary a suffix, spelling or prefix to indicate the generic vs specific (an apple, the apple) vs proper noun (the Big Apple = New York).

Edit:
In my main SF, there is Starships for thousands of years, so the Planetary Empire name of an Alien species, The name of the planet can be different and many generations of other species are living, so the Malthians live mostly on Hertness, the actual Planetary Nation has another name and other "non-natives" are also inhabitants. Everyone else might call people from that world Hertnessians (or something), unless they know what species (not to be confused with race). The Aliens insist the English for humans from Earth is Tellurian and Earth is Tellus.

But I think till we have real Aliens and the Academe Francaise (or what ever they call themselves) or UN, or USA decides, you can make up your own rules as long as you are consistent?

 

[The Neon Seal]

All Aliens live on planets they call Earth and call themselves The People, or human.

Capitalise Nationalities, if their planet has but a single government and no nations, nor concept of Race (which is pretty nutty, only Tribe makes sense), then the Alien's Species Name might be capitalised. If they have multiple Nations OR "races" then the Alien species isn't capitalised, but the Nations and/or races are.

Of course this is only for English. Some languages have no upper/lower case. The alien's language may not. Some languages may vary a suffix, spelling or prefix to indicate the generic vs specific (an apple, the apple) vs proper noun (the Big Apple = New York).

Edit:
In my main SF, there is Starships for thousands of years, so the Planetary Empire name of an Alien species, The name of the planet can be different and many generations of other species are living, so the Malthians live mostly on Hertness, the actual Planetary Nation has another name and other "non-natives" are also inhabitants. Everyone else might call people from that world Hertnessians (or something), unless they know what species (not to be confused with race). The Aliens insist the English for humans from Earth is Tellurian and Earth is Tellus.

But I think till we have real Aliens and the Academe Francaise (or what ever they call themselves) or UN, or USA decides, you can make up your own rules as long as you are consistent?

Thank you very much. This is a similar situation in my book where there has been an alliance for a thousand years. So it would make sense to have the species themselves (even though I refer to them as 'races') in lower case, and their ethnic groups in capitols? There is one race of elemental people for instance, but five different kinds within that group, plus there is another group that had two (although one is now extinct).

I like that. I might go with that. Would it break the rule if I capitolised the 'species name' the first time I refer to them though? Or again, is that a case of making it up as long as I am consistent?

You see, none of my races have names that are derived from their planet, just as humans are humans and not Earthlings.

 

[The Judge]

But TJ suggested capitalising for sentient species above, and I wonder if that's a widely accepted distinction?

I was making it up as I went along, as usual.

I'd already thought that we don't capitalise species here, as Ursa says, so I couldn't simply say capitalise all alien species, as alien animals would then have capitals, which didn't seem right. I did wonder if the difference isn't sentience but using the name of the planet/whatever, eg like Ganymedians, but what if the people from Venus didn't call themselves Venusians, but Nobbergobbles? I'd give that a capital even though it might mean "the beautiful ones" in Nobbergobble. So then I gave up and pronounced!

While idly thinking about it, Steller's sea cow occurred to me, as it would. But Steller was a person, not a place, so that's no help. But checking the spelling of Steller, I see that when animals are named in the Latin, the first name is given a capital, eg Hydrodomalis gigas. Not sure if that's of any help or not, but I thought it was interesting.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Ireland has Irish, meaning of Ireland, not just people of the Nationality.
and Celts
But Ireland in Irish is Éire
and of Ireland in Irish is Éireann
Confusingly, the Nation is NOT called the Republic of Ireland, but in English, only Ireland. Éire is only used as the name of the Country/Nation if you are writing in Irish.
A bit like Germany and Deutschland
The Island of Ireland has the countries of Northern Ireland, U.K. and Ireland.

So use the rules you'd use here. "humans" is a special case. If we had a single World Government, we would still not be the world of the Humans. Many SF authors use the Latin based Terra (means land) or Tellus and Terrans or Tellurians for people from Earth, rather than humans, humans might mean people from any world originally from Earth, or any sentient beings. You decide for your story.
Gaia is rather rarer for Earth. I've seen Earthlings, and never Gaians!

 

[The Neon Seal]

'Ghhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,' The Neon Seal cried in confusion.

Fiddlesticks. The thing with naming humans after which planet they come from is that I don't differentiate them that way. Humans are humans, under one government -with two exceptions. The planets in my book are more like states in America, and there is the odd occasion when I refer to my main character as a Tranquilian, but only because she hails from the city of Tranquility, just as I am Mancunian because I come from Manchester.

So, if humans are just 'humans', then would the korynium just be 'korynium'? (There is no planet Korynium, but that is the name of the people.)

I tried looking up stuff on Star Trek, but that was no help as case sense differs with who is writing about the Klingons and the romulans and, you get the picture.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I am a writer of Science Fantasy and I was wondering which case I should use for the first letter of each species.

If we're keeping with fantasy, then familiar race nouns such as human, elf, dwarf, goblin, kobold, dragon, and orc are not capitalised.

If the noun describes belonging to a culture, then the noun would likely be capitalised - ie, Rohirrim, Klingon, French.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

We could split hairs all day, but you can probably use either as long as you're consistent.

I think this is the nutshell piece of advice, and also the one that stops you turning in circles. if you go with a trad publisher, they'll change it according to their house-style, if you self publish, provided there's consistency no one will blink. And no agent or editor will use it as an excuse to reject you.
Cake?

 

[The Neon Seal]

If we're keeping with fantasy, then familiar race nouns such as human, elf, dwarf, goblin, kobold, dragon, and orc are not capitalised.

If the noun describes belonging to a culture, then the noun would likely be capitalised - ie, Rohirrim, Klingon, French.

Ahh! Now this is helpful, as I do include fantasy creature along side more traditional Aliens - such as dragons, goblins, trolls... there's even a brownie in there at some point!

I think this is the nutshell piece of advice, and also the one that stops you turning in circles. if you go with a trad publisher, they'll change it according to their house-style, if you self publish, provided there's consistency no one will blink. And no agent or editor will use it as an excuse to reject you.
Cake?

Thank you for your advice. CAKE! I wants the cake!

 

[Phyrebrat]

Point of order: Arabs aren't a race, and linking in with what Ray said I'd also be reluctant to call Irish a race. Nationalities are different from races, altho is agree that the meaning of race has evolved into wider use.

pH

 

[The Neon Seal]

Interestingly, I've just got Galactic Civilization 3 on Steam and in the achievements the different races are given a capitol at the beginning, such as 'the Altarian' and 'the Drengin'. Then again, humans are called Terrans.

I think I shall stick with humans and all other common fantasy nouns (troll, dragon, etc...) in lower case, and races/cultures from other planets in uppercase.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

races

Races hardly are real at all. Irish is people of a particular Nationality, Celts might once have been a race. Very few Irish have much Celtic DNA.
That's why I refer to orcs, dwarves, elves, ogres, humans as species.