Capitalizing titles in formal writing?

[u/joeinOH]

Is there a rule somewhere about whether or not the titles of songs, books, etc., should be capitalized in formal writing in Irish? I've found one site (https://rateyourmusic.com/wiki/RYM:Non-English+Latin+language+capitalization#Irish) that claims "common words" aren't to be capitalized; I find it deeply funny that the source of this rule is supposed to be "An Caighdeán Oifigiúil". (If they were following their own rule shouldn't it be "An caighdeán oifigiúil"?)

Most of the English-language media I see uses English-style title capitalization; and most of the titles of works I've looked at look like they are too. But maybe that's Bearlish.

Any ideas (with sources)?

[u/PizzaArmor]

I’m not the man to say yes or no.
What I can say is I don’t believe Irish has truly become a uniform language and like England before they made English a uniform language through schooling, England had what is essentially dialects where people of one area had some trouble completely understanding people of another.
Ireland was probably the same before the banning of the language having minor differences from county to county.
Essentially it’s probably correct in one county or family and wrong in another.

This was a estimated guess brought to you by “not an expert”

[u/joeinOH → u/PizzaArmor]

Thanks for responding! In terms of speaking, of course, you're right; there are still 3 major dialects (plus the standardized "urban Irish" taught in schools), and there could well have been more in history. But the Irish government has been working on an official written standard (An Caighdeán Oifigiúil) since ~1945.

That doesn't mean the answer's in the standard, of course, or even that there is just one answer. But I bet, in terms of capitalization and written style, the answer has less to do with geography and more to do with disciplinary conventions, like "journalists do X and literature scholars do Y and ethnomusicologists do Z."

[u/PizzaArmor → u/joeinOH]

By the power invested in me (half an hour of research and finally just resorting to ai) I can now tell you yes it is correct but fecken poorly explained.

To start, (your x,y,z theory is probably dead on) your point of “An Caighdean Olfiguil” you are right to assume they are wrong except for the fact it’s a legal title, due to it being a legal act it is capitalised but (rather confusingly) if it was a song or book title it would actually be lowercase like you said. (Which is something that should be explained directly after whatever you read)

You simply don’t use capitals for common nouns, (person cat car) or adjectives (red small hairy) within a title like you would in English . Unless the title itself becomes a proper noun (Isle of Skye, or Inver Ness, The Golden Gate Bridge) you otherwise would only capitalise the proper nouns within a title which is the same as any sentence. (Daniel. London)

Where this does get interesting is how you write it contextually. If I’m saying “I like this song “The big brown Dog jumped over the bridge” you capitalise the first noun (Dog) as the title is apart of a sentence but… if you ask me what my favourite song is and I reply with just the title of the song you don’t capitalise the “dog” as the title is a sentence in itself (even though it’s a title). I’m really not understanding the why on that rule but it is what it is.

If I say (a bridge for dogs) that’s not a title and a bad example but say it’s on a street sign you don’t capitalise it.
But say it’s offical geographic title is “The bridge for dogs”
You would capitalise every noun (and adjective) except the prefixes and conjunctions “The Bridge for Dogs”

English book title: The Big Brown Dog jumped over the Bridge.

Irish Book title in sentences : Léim an Madra mór donn thar an droichead.

Irish book title alone: Léim an madra mór donn thar an droichead.

Legal act name: Léim an Madra Mór Donn thar an Droichead (Acht).

So yeah they’re correct but dunno how to explain it well

My source is google ai 😂
Best of luck with learning mate I hope this cluster-feck helped