European Union Lowercases 'Christ'
EU lowercases 'Christ':
Brussels' grammar rule says title to be spelled with small 'c' in future
Posted: November 1, 20052:12 p.m. Eastern
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com-->© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47166
A new grammar rule devised by the European Union in Brussels stipulates the word "Christ" shall be spelled with a lowercase "c."
The rule was part of an orthography reform published in October, reported Canada Free Press.
The paper cites a German newssite, Kath.net, in reporting that the new guidelines also indicate the Dutch word for "Jews" (Joden) is to be spelled with a capital "J" when referring to nationality and with a lower-case "j" when referring to the religion.
The EU changes become mandatory next August. There are no penalties set out for those who insist on continuing to spell Christ with a capital "C."
Canada Free Press noted the title of Javier Solana, secretary general of the EU, was still to be spelled with capital letters.
Many Europeans have long discarded belief in God and in fact believe more deeply in ghosts than in a deity.
A new poll finds two-thirds of Britons said they believe in the existence of ghosts and spirits, but only 55 percent said they believe in the existence of God.
Meanwhile, 26 percent believe in UFOs, 19 percent in reincarnation and 4 percent in the Loch Ness Monster, Ananova reported.
Brussels' grammar rule says title to be spelled with small 'c' in future
Posted: November 1, 20052:12 p.m. Eastern
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com-->© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47166
A new grammar rule devised by the European Union in Brussels stipulates the word "Christ" shall be spelled with a lowercase "c."
The rule was part of an orthography reform published in October, reported Canada Free Press.
The paper cites a German newssite, Kath.net, in reporting that the new guidelines also indicate the Dutch word for "Jews" (Joden) is to be spelled with a capital "J" when referring to nationality and with a lower-case "j" when referring to the religion.
The EU changes become mandatory next August. There are no penalties set out for those who insist on continuing to spell Christ with a capital "C."
Canada Free Press noted the title of Javier Solana, secretary general of the EU, was still to be spelled with capital letters.
Many Europeans have long discarded belief in God and in fact believe more deeply in ghosts than in a deity.
A new poll finds two-thirds of Britons said they believe in the existence of ghosts and spirits, but only 55 percent said they believe in the existence of God.
Meanwhile, 26 percent believe in UFOs, 19 percent in reincarnation and 4 percent in the Loch Ness Monster, Ananova reported.
posted by 123 @ 3:47 PM
1 Comments:
Thankfully, it looks like this one is largely a false alarm.
Firstly, the regulation is not an EU regulation but a Duch one (I suppose the confusion arose because Brussels, EU HQ, happens to be the capital of the Netherlands), and, secondly, the regulation does not generally forbid the uppercased spelling of "Christ." Apparently the result of the obsessive tendencies of Dutch govenrment orthographers, it reportedly treats special cases of "figurative or plastic Christ representations," where the name is a short form of Dutch words such as "Christ-picture" or "Christ-head."
Now, I imagine it would be the same thing with, say, a Philip-head (limited edition, email me for pricing), so I guess they are just trying to standardize—but of course I know absoultely nothing about Dutch. I am sure that among the millions of readers of Protecting Veil some are Dutch, and maybe they can chime in. In any event it is a much less significant regulation than has been reported.
(All of this is stated at the updated article at kath.net [in German; for English see the Bablefish translation), which was the original source for the information in the WorldNetDaily report, which has itself been updated. Hat-tip to MHalblaub at Free Rebublic!)
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