Pet Species - Capitalizing?

[peachifruit]

Answer me this simple question, if you will:

Do you capitalize pet species names? 'No,' you might say. Technically, you wouldn't say, "The Cat jumped over the hat."

But just the other day, I read this in a neopedia article:

Albert the Kacheek used to be a sweet little spotted Kacheek with aspiring hopes and dreams of becoming the most famous gardener to cultivate the rich soil of Neopia, and to have one his very own gardening shops on almost every corner in every town from here to Krawk Island.

Is capitalizing species names a trend in Neopia, or does the Neopets team just have bad grammar?

[soggydude]

I always capatilize species names, and most people do the same. I guess normal pets and virtual pets are different in that way

[Tdyans]

I know that if I write a story or article and don't capitalize the species names, they get capitalized for me. For instance, I could write, "The gelert walked down the street" and when the story is published, it would appear as "The Gelert walked down the street." So, I guess that's the official "way things are" in Neopia. Don't ask me why... I think it's similar to the fact that things like "Neohome" and "Neopets" always get capitalized...

[epk]

I've been bugged about that too. I think it's there because it's easier to read, not because it's having to fit some uptight english rule.

[Leb]

I've been confused by that too--at first I would write, "The yellow aisha," and that became "The yellow Aisha," in my stories, and since paintbrush colors like Christmas or Halloween are capitalized, I took it that things like "yellow Aisha" would be "Yellow Aisha."

For things like cat or dog, I suggest thinking of sci-fi characters where alien names are capitalized (like in that old Animorphs series, the made-up alien species Andalite was capitalized, but the author kept the word human lower-case.). I suppose it's just to show that it's made-up. It could be argued that Neopian species like Lupes are from real creatures and should be lower-case; lupe is the French word for "wolf" that comes from the Latin word of the same meaning, lupus. So I suppose the Neopets Team laid it out that it should be capitalized, to avoid confusion.

[L]

I capitalize, always, because that's the way the site does it. Left to my own devices, I probably would have went with lower case as 'cat, dog, horse' etc. are all lower case.

Maybe Neopet species are like nationalities- after all, we capitalize German, Italian, American, etc.

When in doubt, when writing for a specific site or organization, always go with how they choose to handle the issue- in this case, capitalize the species names.

[I love animorphs]

leb388 said:

(like in that old Animorphs series, the made-up alien species Andalite was capitalized, but the author kept the word human lower-case.)

I LOVE ANIMORPHIS!!! I've read every singhle book and watched every single movie and last year I was an Andilite for halloween! ;D

[Leb]

I liked Animorphs, but I wasn't really obsessed with it, and only read about half of the books and didn't see the TV show. When my favorite character was killed off (literally) in the end, I still read some of the books but wasn't into it anymore. How were you an Andalite for Halloween? The tail must've been hard to do....

[soggydude]

Shidi said:

I capitalize, always, because that's the way the site does it. Left to my own devices, I probably would have went with lower case as 'cat, dog, horse' etc. are all lower case.

Maybe Neopet species are like nationalities- after all, we capitalize German, Italian, American, etc.

I suppose if I was left to my own devices, I would still capitilize the species name, most likely because like shidi said, it's like they're like nationalities (to me at least).

[iluvpuppies986]

I don't capitalize pet species, even though Neopets always does. It just feels weird to capitalize them. I don't know why...it just does. I've tried, but it feels too weird. It also looks weird to me when it's something that I've written.

[Rumiko Takeshi]

I always capitalize species names. Force of habit, I guess, plus I see it on Neopets all the time.

-snuggles Albert the Kacheek from the first post- I luff Alby. =D

[Princess Ember Mononoke]

The team has bad grammer. I submitted a story where the species names WEREN'T capitalized, and when it got in it changed it so they were.

[Princess Ember Mononoke]

Urgh. And the way the Animorphs series ended made me want to hunt K.A. Applegate down and terrorize him for the rest of his life. I HATE him now, and will never read another one of his books.

[soggydude]

ember188 said:

Urgh. And the way the Animorphs series ended made me want to hunt K.A. Applegate down and terrorize him for the rest of his life. I HATE him now, and will never read another one of his books.

K.A. Applegate is a female...but I think she decided to end it too fast. Before everything fell apart, the series was really good. Then she screwed everything up by rushing it to the end.

[Patjade]

I tend to capitalize the species because the site does it that way. However, the one example given, "Albert the Kacheek" should be capitalized, as it is more of a title than a species name, defining the person in question.

Elizabeth the Queen of England has "queen" capitalized as it is part of the title. It is a similar thing.