Why is I, (the word, not the letter) capitalised mid-sentence, and not ‘he’ or ‘you’ or ‘a’?
I’m sure I’ve been told why in the past. It escapes me now though.
It’s a proper pronoun?
It’s just a convention of English orthography. Each language using Roman letters does it differently. Most capitalize the equivalent of “You.”
I got a D in my English GCSE. I never formally learned fundemental parts of it’s usage.
I assume that ‘his’ and ‘me’ are also proper pronouns (remember, I am dumb to the fundementals of the written language) If so, why is the H not capitalised?
(That was in response to Mr. Blue Sky’s post)
What do you mean, “most”? I can only think of the German “Sie”. Certainly, in French neither “tu” nor “vous” is capitalized.
As for the original question, I found this quote:
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).”
Ed
I would think it is the same rule that requires capitalization of “Father” when it is the subject. (Is that the rule? Subject?) As opposed to the lowercase version “my father”.
Similarly, the subject use of “I” is captitalized, whereas the object use of “me” is not.
“father” would only be capitalized in American English if it were at the beginning of the sentence or a reference to God.
Note that pronouns referring to God are generally capitalized by the reverent.
Well, there does seem to be one other fairly common case in which "father is capitalized. For example, in this article plucked at random from Google:
You’d also capitalize it if you were using “Father” to replace his name. “I spoke to Father today” as opposed to “I spoke to my father today”.
Yours truly asked this very question some time ago.
The fact that you*, of all people, asked this very question in the past adds much credibility to my own rendering of the question. since, in my regard at least, you are the one doper who seems to have the answer for the most questions asked here.
I learned in school because I is used in place of my proper name. Exp. George, John and I watched the debate. George, John and Reepicheep watched the debate.
I don’t buy that. You, he and she are also–or can be–used in place of a proper name, but are not capitalized, except when beginning a sentence. I think the quote posted by suranyi is the most reasonable explanation put forth thus far.
That’s the rule I was referencing. I guess it doesn’t have anything to do with subjects and objects.
It’s a Germanic affectation.
Yep. In that case, “Father” is being used as a proper noun and, as such, requires capitalization.
No, I don’t buy that reason. If that were the reason, then the word me should be capitalized too.
This site gives a reason similar to that in **suranyi’s ** earlier post:
The answer is buried in a history of the English language text - Pyles and Algeo, Origins and Development of the English Language, 4th ed., p. 187:
*I * came to be capitalized, not through any egotism, but only because lower-case *i * standing alone was likely to be overlooked, since it is the most insignificant of the letters of the alphabet.
This is found in the chapter on modern English to 1800, meaning in the period from 1500 to 1800. Thus, I take this to mean that the capitalization of I for the personal pronoun was a printer’s invention during the early part of this period. I do know that in manuscripts from the Old and Middle English period, the forms were *ic * (OE) and *ich * (ME) and were never capitalized in script.
discovered by Dale W. Simpson
Professor of English
Missouri Southern State College
Joplin, Missouri
slight hijack…
Does anyone have any idea why every time that I type or write the word “idea” I capitalise the first letter? (I even had to a few times there)
It only happens with the word “idea” and I have to make a consious effort NOT to do it. I have no clue why.