Rumeysa,

I think AI is doing a good job with your messages.

I was curious what ChatGPT would say about the difference between English and Turkish capitalization, so I asked.

While it doesn't mention the letter q, I found the answer very interesting, and clearly above my head…

I'll post it here, and perhaps you can say if it is accurate.

From ChatGPT:

English and Turkish use many of the same capitalization conventions, but there are several important differences. Some are grammatical, while others are unique to the Turkish alphabet.

1. The letters I and İ (the biggest difference)

Turkish has four distinct letters where English has only two:

• I = uppercase of ı (dotless i)
• İ = uppercase of i (dotted i)

This means:

Lowercase	Uppercase
i	İ
ı	I

For example:

• istanbul → İstanbul
• izmir → İzmir
• ışık ("light") → Işık

This is one of the most common mistakes made by software that isn't Turkish-aware. Simply converting "i" to "I" is incorrect in Turkish.

2. Days and months

Unlike English, Turkish does not capitalize the names of days or months unless they begin a sentence.

Examples:

English:

• Monday
• January

Turkish:

• pazartesi (Monday)
• ocak (January)

However:

• Pazartesi günü geldim.
  ("I came on Monday.") — capitalized only because it starts the sentence.

3. Nationalities and languages

English capitalizes these:

• English
• Turkish
• French

Turkish generally does too because they are derived from proper nouns:

• Türk
• İngiliz
• Fransız

Likewise:

• Türkçe
• İngilizce
• Fransızca

So in this area the two languages are largely similar.

4. Titles

English often capitalizes titles before names:

• President Lincoln
• Professor Smith

Turkish is somewhat more conservative. Titles are capitalized when they precede a person's name:

• Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan
• Profesör Ayşe Demir

When used generically, they remain lowercase:

• cumhurbaşkanı
• profesör

5. Directions

English often capitalizes directions when they refer to regions:

• the South
• the West

Turkish typically uses lowercase unless the word is part of an official geographic name.

6. Formal pronouns

English capitalizes "I" but not "you."

Turkish has no equivalent to the English capitalized pronoun "I." The pronoun ben remains lowercase unless it starts a sentence.

7. Sentence capitalization

Both languages capitalize:

• the first word of a sentence
• proper names
• countries
• cities
• organizations
• book titles (though title capitalization styles differ)

For example:

English:

• The History of Turkey

Turkish:

• Türkiye Tarihi

Turkish titles generally capitalize the first letter of each significant word, but style guides can vary depending on the publisher.

8. Acronyms

Both languages capitalize acronyms:

• NATO
• TBMM (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi)
• TÜBİTAK

Turkish acronyms may include Turkish-specific letters such as Ü, Ş, or İ.

Summary

Rule	English	Turkish
First word of sentence	✔	✔
Proper names	✔	✔
Months	Capitalized	Lowercase (unless sentence-initial)
Days of week	Capitalized	Lowercase (unless sentence-initial)
Languages	Capitalized	Capitalized
Nationalities	Capitalized	Capitalized
Special uppercase I rules	No	Yes (I/ı and İ/i)
Pronoun "I"	Always capitalized	No equivalent

The most distinctive capitalization feature of Turkish is its treatment of I, İ, ı, and i. Correctly handling these four letters is essential for proper spelling and capitalization in Turkish, and software that assumes English casing rules often produces incorrect results.

Thanks,

Richard,

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."

Herman Melville

My web site: https://www.turner42.com

From: Rumeysa Betül Boydak via MBraille-Test <mbraille-test@lists.mpaja.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2026 3:02 PM
To: development. This list is for MBraille testers. You will get access to beta versions and latest features still in <mbraille-test@lists.mpaja.com>
Cc: Rumeysa Betül Boydak <r.betulboydak@gmail.com>
Subject: [MBraille-Test] Re: A problem that persists despite the update.

I hope a solution can be found. All of the other letters can be typed in uppercase, but the letter q cannot be typed as an uppercase Q in MBraille. That is the issue I am referring to. Thank you for taking the time to help and for your attention.

I know a little English, but my English is not good enough. Therefore, I use AI to translate these messages before sending them. Because of that, I may not always express everything as clearly as I intend.

I am aware that English also has capitalization rules. However, I believe the capitalization rules in Turkish are more detailed in some respects. As I am a Turkish language teacher, I need to write correctly and follow the language rules. That is why I report the issues I notice while using MBraille.

Thank you again for your interest, support, and assistance.

Richard Turner via MBraille-Test <mbraille-test@lists.mpaja.com> şunları yazdı (24 Tem 2026 00:44):

sounds like Turkish has similar rules to English.

Proper names and places, like cities, states, countries, all need to be capitalized. Also, the first word of a sentence needs to be capitalized.

IT sounds like Harri needs to build in an exception since q is not in the Turkish language.

I do not know how that can be dealt with if the speech synthesizer insists that q shouldn't be there.

I am sadly limited to the English language. I hope a solution is found.