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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Linguistics Studies
Capital letter " I "
it's unique that English always uses " I " in its writing but I wonder why should we use capital letter " I " in writing? Does it symbolize to something?
Top answer
From The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology (Wilson, 1988): The pronoun 'I' developed from the unstressed form of Old English (about 725) ic , the singular pronoun of the first person (nominative case). Modern and Middle English I developed from earlier i in the stressed position. I came to be written with a capital letter thereby making it a distinct word and avoiding misreading handwritten manuscripts.
- From The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology (Wilson, 1988): The pronoun 'I' developed from the unstressed form of Old English (about 725) ic , the singular pronoun of the first person (nominative case).
- Modern and Middle English I developed from earlier i in the stressed position.
- I came to be written with a capital letter thereby making it a distinct word and avoiding misreading handwritten manuscripts.
- In the northern and midland dialects of England the capitalized form I appeared about 1250.
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2 Answers
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From The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology (Wilson, 1988):
The pronoun 'I' developed from the unstressed form of Old English (about 725) ic, the singular pronoun of the first person (nominative case). Modern and Middle English I developed from earlier i in the stressed position. I came to be written with a capital letter there
The pronoun 'I' developed from the unstressed form of Old English (about 725) ic, the singular pronoun of the first person (nominative case). Modern and Middle English I developed from earlier i in the stressed position. I came to be written with a capital letter there
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MM's historical perspective is accurate and complete. Today, it can simply be counted as an example of convention.
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