Talk:A capella

We could probably discuss this spelling for ever. Somebody has even created a web page about it. [1]

According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, the most widely accepted spelling is a cappella. Many web pages [2] [3] [4] and the A-Cappella Music FAQ [5] [6] agree.

Some writers [7] [8] [9] use a cappella in their own writing, reserving a capella for quotations, titles and meta tags, acknowleding it to be incorrect. Others [10] [11], and The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, acknowledge what people are actually writing and hedge their bets, accepting a capella as a valid alternative spelling. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary takes this position, yet also confirms that Capelle means goat and is the name of a star.

Some apparently authoritative sources also concede [12] acappella as a most popular de facto usage.

Some writers [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] use both a cappella and a capella without appearing to notice the variation. Sometimes they are humorous.

One widely quoted purist [20] [21] in support of a cappella alleges

In truth, a capella means in your hair, a cappello means in your hat, and A Capella is an astronomical reference to the first planet circling the star Capella in the constellation Auriga.

The popular vote: Google finds 247,000 hits for a capella, 205,000 for a cappella and 77,600 for acappella.
EdH 15:34, 3 Aug 2003 (UTC)