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When writing dialogue for characters that stammer or stutter over the first letter of the first word in their speech, should the first letter remain a capital or become lowercase when repeated?

My question is probably best explained by example…

Retaining capital letter:

“H-H-Hello,” he said.

Not retaining capital letter:

“H-h-hello,” he said.

Which is correct? Are both acceptable? I wasn’t able to find any solid information either way, so I thought a discussion could be had in the hopes of reaching a concrete conclusion.

To be entirely clear, I’m only asking about stammering over the first letter of an otherwise uncapitalized word, and whether that repeated first letter should stay capitalized or not.

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  • @Walter - given that it already has an accepted answer, you're unlikely to find someone willing to research and add something "authoritative". Hopefully I'm wrong, though.
    – Heartspring
    Nov 28 at 15:11
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    @Heartspring Yeah, I figure as much, but I thought I’d try anyway. Meanwhile, I did my own Googling, and I only found one style guide that mentions capitalization in stuttering (CMoS), and it basically says, “We prefer lowercase letters after the initial capital, but it’s not a rule, so do whatever”. So, I’m not sure there even IS an authoritative answer. But, I’d be happy to be corrected.
    – Walter
    Nov 28 at 19:07

2 Answers 2

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I'd stick with the upper case letters. And that doesn't mean you need to use upper case for a stutter all the time. If the stutter starts on a lower case letter then keep it lower case. For example,

I d-don't like that. But if it was I, the I'd use I-I...

That said, I think it' a bad idea to repeat the same letter again and again. It'd be going too much over the top and your reader won't like it. I'd probably stick to a single repetition.

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  • I usually only repeat the stuttered letter once, very occasionally twice when I really want to make it obvious that they're struggling. The examples I wrote are just examples.
    – Emily
    Feb 25, 2016 at 8:24
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    If there were an obvious answer, the question would be too basic for ELU. The answer isn't obvious; this is a marginal case. Any answer claiming to be aauthoritative needs at least one linked and attributed supporting reference.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jun 20, 2020 at 13:46
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Actually, the second letter does not get capitalized if it's an ordinary word. It would be H-h-hello. As for the word I, since I is a full word, then it would be I--I, with an em-dash between the Is, not two hyphens. The exception is a proper name. H-H-Henry will not be joining us.

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    Hello, Kim. If there were an obvious answer, the question would be too basic for ELU. The answer isn't obvious; this is a marginal case. Any answer claiming to be aauthoritative needs at least one linked and attributed supporting reference.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jun 20, 2020 at 13:45

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