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Should a conjunction inside a hyphenated surname keep its lowercase? Ortega-y-Gasset now capitalizes to Ortega-Y-Gasset #478
Description
capitalize() on a hyphenated compound surname now uppercases a conjunction inside it. Measured on the released wheels and on the 2.2 branch, all with force=True:
| input | 1.4.0 | 2.0.0 | 2.1.0 | 2.2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
jose ortega-y-gasset |
Jose Ortega-y-Gasset |
Jose Ortega-y-Gasset |
Jose Ortega-y-Gasset |
Jose Ortega-Y-Gasset |
JOSE ORTEGA-Y-GASSET |
Jose Ortega-Y-Gasset |
Jose Ortega-Y-Gasset |
Jose Ortega-Y-Gasset |
Jose Ortega-Y-Gasset |
The two spellings disagreed on every version through 2.1. #458 made them agree — by taking the uppercase answer, which is a deviation from 1.4.0 for the lowercase spelling. The same applies to Silva-e-Sousa, -et-, -und- and every other member of Lexicon.conjunctions.
Why it happens
#458 moved the conjunction-or-initial decision into the parse, and the decision is the whole token's. Ortega-y-Gasset is one family token carrying no conjunction tag, so repair capitalizes each word of it.
The spaced spelling is unaffected and still reads the convention correctly — there y is a token of its own and is tagged conjunction:
parse("jose ortega y gasset") # family "ortega y gasset", the `y` tagged conjunction
# capitalize() -> "Jose Ortega y Gasset" (unchanged on every version)The case for leaving it
A hyphenated token is one word to the parser, and re-deciding per sub-word inside a token is exactly what #458 removed — it was producing two answers for one name. Reintroducing a sub-word rule for conjunctions only would be a narrower version of the thing that was wrong.
The case for changing it
Ortega-y-Gasset is a real orthography with a real convention, and the hyphenated spelling is common in library catalogues and bibliographies. The library gets the spaced form right, so a user reasonably expects the hyphenated form to match. Today the two spellings of one name repair differently.
Scope, measured
- The parse is unaffected.
Ortega-y-Gassetis a singlefamilytoken before and after; onlycapitalized()differs. - 0 of 1,103 differential corpus names have a conjunction inside a hyphenated token, and
compare.pynever callscapitalized()anyway (decisions.md#R4), so no gate run can see this either way. - No safe workaround today. A
capitalization_exceptionskey ofortega-y-gassetnever matches — keys are looked up per word. A'y' -> 'y'entry does restore it, but breaks initials:y. smithrepairs toy Smith.
Found while replacing the constructed e-f example in 2.2's release note with a real name (#477).
Activity
derek73 commentedon Sep 1, 2026
Related: #479 — the same
y/eword, but the parse rather than the rendering, and a different cause. There an all-caps name reads the conjunction as an initial because nothing checks whether the capital carries any signal; here a hyphenated token has no conjunction tag to read at all.derek73 commentedon Sep 14, 2026
PR #527 decides the one-case reading of
yin the spaced form:ystays outside the newLexicon.conjunctions_ambiguoussubset, sojose ortega y gassetandJOSE ORTEGA Y GASSETnow both keep the familyOrtega y Gassetand repair toJose Ortega y Gasset(a bare capitalYin a name written wholly in one case joins; in mixed case it is still an initial). This issue's "the spaced form is right" argument now rests on that membership, recorded at decisions.md#P3. The hyphenated token is untouched by that PR.fix(#459/#492/#478): the toolkit review round
fix(#492/#459/#478): a mixed-case suffix is kept as written, and the …
Merge pull request #539 from derek73/claude/459-492-478-render-case-r…
derek73 commentedon Sep 26, 2026
Shipped in PR #539 (merged 2026-09-25,
120033b5), with the rule as proposed: a connective interior to a hyphenated token keeps its lowercase, sojose ortega-y-gassetandJOSE ORTEGA-Y-GASSETboth giveJose Ortega-y-Gasset. Edge parts stay ordinary name text (juan e-f smithkeepsE-F, #458's answer), a period-marked single letter is an initial (j.-e.-p. dupontkeepsJ.-E.-P.), and MāoriTe Awanui-a-Rangiis the recorded non-reach. One boundary decided on the way: the hyphen is the writer's own join, so the interior word reads as a connective even in a name written in one case, where the spaced form reads a marked letter as an initial.J-E-P DUPONT→J-e-P Dupontis the pinned cost, andLexicon.conjunctions_ambiguousdoes not reach hyphenated words. Record:rules.md#R4, the 2026-09-23/24 hyphen bullets underdecisions.md#R4, release log.fix(derek73#478): a connective inside a hyphenated surname keeps its …
test(derek73#459/derek73#492/derek73#478): case repair changes case a…
docs(derek73#459/derek73#492/derek73#478): the decisions, the guides …
fix(derek73#459/derek73#492/derek73#478): the branch review round
refactor(derek73#459/derek73#492/derek73#478): the simplify pass