Kentucky is the Literary Capital of Mid-America, and because it is part of a title, Mid-America begins with a capital M. But what if we used this hyphenated noun in an ordinary sentence? For example: "Most of the U.S. population lives in mid-America." Should the m in mid-America still be capitalized?
I'll give my opinion in a moment. But first, we know this for sure: When you describe a simple direction, you do not capitalize the first letter of that direction. "Lexington is north of Chattanooga and south of Cincinnati." Here, north and south are simple directions and should begin with a lower-case letter.
However, when you name a geographical region, the rule is that you begin with a capital letter. For example, "People disagree about whether Kentucky is in the South." In this case, South is not simply a direction; it's a specific area of the country.
This capital-letter rule extends to other U.S. regions: Northeast, Southwest, Midwest. And you could broaden this beyond our borders: Middle East, Western Hemisphere, South Pacific.
So what about mid-America? While mid-America doesn't appear on most regional maps, it is not a simple direction (north, south, etc.). At the same time, it is differentiated from most regional names (Northeast, Southwest, etc.) by its hyphen.
Ultimately, it seems to me, mid-America has more in common with Midwest than west -- that is, it's more like a region and less like a direction. Thus, whenever describing our part of the country, call it Mid-America, with a capital M.
Neil Chethik, aka the Grammar
Gourmet, is executive director at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning (www.carnegieliteracy.org) and author of FatherLoss and
VoiceMale. The Carnegie Center offers writing classes and seminars for
businesses and individuals. Contact Neil at neil@carnegiecenterlex.org or (859) 254-4175.