esr@iheds.UUCP (E. Rieback) (12/30/83)
Can anyone explain why the pronoun I is always capitalized and the other
pronouns are not? Does any other language have this distinction?
My own theory is that either early English speakers were an egotistical
lot, or else they were too lazy to dot their i's!
E. Riebackeric@whuxle.UUCP (12/30/83)
#R:iheds:-31700:whuxle:30800002:000:746 whuxle!eric Dec 29 22:17:00 1983 >> /***** whuxle:net.nlang / iheds!esr / 6:18 pm Dec 29, 1983*/ >> Can anyone explain why the pronoun I is always capitalized and the other >> pronouns are not? Does any other language have this distinction? >> My own theory is that either early English speakers were an egotistical >> lot, or else they were too lazy to dot their i's! >> >> E. Rieback I'll take the capitalized pronoun over German's capitalization of EVERY noun any day of the week. When I began taking German four years ago, there were some capital letters that I had to re-learn to print because I hadn't used them in some long.... what a bitch.... from the vacationing from school keyboard of eric holtman... ihnp4!whuxle!eric .
rab@cdcvax.UUCP (Roger Bielefeld) (12/31/83)
During my study of German, I found that the capitalization of nouns facilitated my learning of the language. There was never any question of whether a word was or was not a noun. Is this a carry-over from some earlier language? Note that in German the pronouns in the polite form (Sie, Ihrer, Ihnen) are capitalized. This is also true of Spanish (Usted, Ustedes). However, these are all second-person pronouns. The first-person pronouns (yo & nosotros in Spanish, and ich & wir in German) are not capitalized. But, back to the original question: why is "I" capitalized in English? I dunno. Roger Bielefeld decvax!cwruecmp!rab rab.Case@Rand-Relay -- Roger Bielefeld decvax!cwruecmp!rab rab.Case@Rand-Relay
ptw@vaxine.UUCP (P. T. Withington) (01/03/84)
Perhaps just so i wouldn't get lost? Or to make writers like e. e. cummings
unique?
--ptwntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) (01/04/84)
I seem to recall reading somewhere (and I believe) that the capitalization of "I" is simply because it is such a small word that it would otherwise get visually "lost", and similarly for "O". (For that matter, the dot over a small "i" is for much the same reason, though it is also true that in some scripts it is otherwise impossible to distinguish "m" from "in".) Perhaps the proper question, then, is why the other 1-letter word in English, "a", is NOT capitalized. I conjecture that this relates to the fact that it was formerly the 2-letter word "an", which of course is still seen in some uses. Any comments? Mark Brader
grass@uiuccsb.UUCP (01/11/84)
#R:iheds:-31700:uiuccsb:10500014:000:256 uiuccsb!grass Jan 6 11:51:00 1984 Concerning capitalization of pronouns in other languages: Russian often capitalizes the first letter of "you" (when it is singular and formal), but at this point that may be an older usage. I don't know of any other language that capitalizes just "I".
gam@proper.UUCP (Gordon Moffett) (01/15/84)
Isn't the Russian 'ya' (backwards 'R'), which is 'I', always capitalized?
dbb@fluke.UUCP (01/16/84)
In Dutch/Flemish, the formal second person nominative pronoun ("U") is
capitalized. I think the possessive pronoun Uw is, also.
Not that I speak Nederlands...
--
Dave Bartley
John Fluke Mfg Co, Inc
M/S 245F; PO Box C9090; Everett, WA 98206
sb1 allegra ihnp4!uw-beaver \
uw-beaver decvax!microsoft > !fluke!dbb
sun ssc-vax ucbvax!lbl-csam /hopp@nbs-amrf.UUCP (01/17/84)
In Spanish, the word "usted", meaning "you", is not capitalized, but the abbreviation "Ud." is always capitalized. Dunno why. Ted Hopp ..!umcp-cs!nbs-amrf!hopp
grass@uiuccsb.UUCP (01/21/84)
#R:iheds:-31700:uiuccsb:10500016:000:71 uiuccsb!grass Jan 20 11:33:00 1984 No, Russian "ya" is only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence.