Maybe this has been addressed, but I haven’t seen it.
Why is the English, first person singular pronoun (I), capitalized? In Spanish and German, it’s the second person (formal) which is capitalized. I’ve tried to find answers to this question, but to no avail. From what I’ve gathered, it may have something to do with mere script and orthography…But the research I have is fuzzy…
I’m sure this has been asked before, but it’s difficult to search on the word “I”.
In Middle English (11th-14th centuries), it had the forms “ic”, “ich” and “ik”, and when written like that it was generally not capitalised. In the 12th-14th centuries, it became “i” then “I”, and apparently became generally capitalised because the manuscript lower case “i” was harder to read. (This was happening before the invention of printing).
English is unique in capitalising the word meaning “I”, and that would confirm that it is because the lower case “i” is such a small word on the page.
Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that English does not have (Or at least regulary use) Formal and Informal Salutations? Honorifics? I could see where a lower-case concept of I can be found in collectivistic cultures.
No, because when the change was made English did have formal you/ye versus informal thou/thee. Plus it had a fuller range of honorifics than those we use today: “Master”, “Mistress”, “Squire”, etc. But it’s unlikely that people would capitalise “I” to be polite to themselves: it might make sense to capitalise “You” in the same was as Germans capitalise “Sie”, but it’s not good manners to give yourself airs.
FWIW, the Spanish Ud. and Uds. are only capitalized when abbreviated (or start a sentence and so on); they are not capitalized when not abbreviated.
In German letter writing, I think one capitalizes first person, at least first person singular.
No, Germans don’t capitalise the words for “I” and “me”, i.e., “ich”, “mich” and “mir”, unless they are at the start of a sentence. They generally capitalise the polite “you”, i.e., “Sie” and “Ihnen”, and often the informal “you”, i.e., “Du”, “Dich”, “Dir”, “Ihr” and “Euch”.
It’s because “I” when referring to one’s self is a proper noun and in english, all proper nouns are capitalized (as a general rule).
“I” is not a proper noun, it’s a pronoun. If it were a proper noun, then “me” would be one, too.
Doh! I know that – I pictured Du, Dich, et al, but wrote “first person” twice. :smack: