First person singular i

Question

Hi.Why i should be capitalized when used as a first person singular pronoun?Any idea is highly appreciated

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

hrsaneiWhy ~~i should~~ should i be capitalized ...?

In today's world there is probably no need to do so. It's just a tradition that was established very long ago.

We need to research this, but it seems to me that centuries ago when everything was handwritten, it was not always customary to put spaces between words, so the is that occurred in the middle of that mess of letters did not stand out very well. People thought the second version below was easier to read because only the capitalized is represented a full word, the other is being only parts of words.

wheniwasinhighschooliwasinterestedin ...

whenIwasinhighschoolIwasinterestedin ...

You can make your own judgment whether this is true.

CJ

CSnyder · Answer

It's probably a legacy carried over from German, where all nouns are capitalized and pronouns are a mixed bag (currently only Sie, the second person formal pronoun, is capitalized, but the convention has changed within the last 100 years).  In fact, all nouns were still being capitalized in English as late as the turn of the 19th century.  For example, all nouns are capitalized in the Declaration of Independence. This is also probably why we still capitalize all proper nouns.

Cool Breeze · Answer

This is what an etymology dictionary says:

12c. shortening of O.E. ic, first person singular nominative pronoun, from P.Gmc. *ekan (cf. O.Fris. ik, O.N. ek, Norw. eg, Dan. jeg, O.H.G. ih, Ger. ich, Goth. ik), from PIE *eg-, nominative form of the first person singular pronoun (cf. Skt. aham, Hitt. uk, L. ego (source of Fr. Je), Gk. ego, Rus. ja, Lith. aš). Reduced to iby mid-12c. in northern England, it began to be capitalized mid-13c. to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts.

The reason for writing I is ... the orthographic habit in the middle ages of using a 'long i' (that is, j or I) whenever the letter was isolated or formed the last letter of a group; the numeral 'one' was written j or I (and three iij, etc.), just as much as the pronoun. [Otto Jespersen, "Growth and Structure of the English Language," p.233]

The form ich or ik, especially before vowels, lingered in northern England until c.1400 and survived in southern dialects until 18c. The dot on the "small" letter -i- began to appear in 11c. Latin manuscripts, to distinguish the letter from the stroke of another letter (such as -m- or -n-). Originally a diacritic, it was reduced to a dot with the introduction of Roman type fonts.

CB

Khoff · Answer

CalifJimIn today's world there is probably no need to do so.

Jim -- I hope no one thinks you mean that people learning English in today's world have no need to capitalize "I"!

First person singular i

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