# Why I? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2000, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i/43486 "2000-12-01T01:36:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheGoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@TheGoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGoat)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i/43486/1 "2000-12-01T01:36:59Z")
This might have been asked before, but my internet connection is really messed up right now so I can’t really search. Allright that being said why do we capatalize our I’s? We don’t capatalize our a’s so why our I’s? I mean maybe I get capatalizing a single I, but while do we have to capatalize I’m? Why? ---
**Author:** ![TheGoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@TheGoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGoat)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i/43486/2 "2000-12-01T02:46:40Z")
And how come we don’t capatalize a word like in? ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i/43486/3 "2000-12-01T02:51:45Z")
Probably for the same reason we capitalize Mom and Dad… 'Course, we only capitalize those when Mom could be replaced with {mom’s name}. What I wonder is, then, why we don’t capitalize Him or Her. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i/43486/4 "2000-12-01T03:34:19Z")
That IS a good question. I never really thought about it. Course, if you’re e. e. cummmings you don’t have to worry about any capitals… In French, you don’t capitalize the word for “I”- “je.” Unless its at the beginning of a sentence. Personally i think using lower case "i"s is kind of unique. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i/43486/5 "2000-12-01T04:42:35Z")
It is a fairly unique thing, as far as I know. German doesn’t capatalize ‘ich.’ Which is very odd, considering every noun is capitalized, but not pronouns. I think it’s because it’s only one letter, and it refers to a person, so they decided to make it stand out more than just a stupid little lower case letter. Are there other languages where the self pronoun is only one letter? Jman ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i/43486/6 "2000-12-01T05:24:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jman \* > **Are there other languages where the self pronoun is only one letter?** My russian is a little rusty, but IIRC, the “backwards R” letter, “yah”, for lack of a cyrillic font, is the personal pronoun, and is always capitalized. I guess 2 years of high school russian WAS worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Indiana\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/0ea827/32.png) [@Indiana\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indiana_Jones)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i/43486/7 "2000-12-01T18:43:05Z")
Other languages do capitalize some of their pronouns, but not necessarily the first person singular. German capitalizes Sie (second person formal) and Spanish capitalizes Usted and Ustedes (second person formal). ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i/43486/8 "2000-12-01T19:49:09Z")
From [http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-usage-english-faq/](http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-usage-english-faq/) (way down page) > [@](#): > > ## Why is “I” capitalized? > > The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology (Wilson, 1988, ISBN > 0-8242-0745-9) says: “~I~ _pron._ 1137 _i;_ later _I_ (about 1250, in _The Story of Genesis and Exodus_); developed from the unstressed form of Old English (about 725) _ic_ 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. In the south of England, where Old English _ic_ early shifted in pronunciation to _ich_ (by palatalization), the form _I_ did not become established until the 1700’s (although it appears sporadically before that time).” Forgot I had that link. It covers a lot of topics - even a mention of Cecil in “The Whole Nine Yards”.