could somebody please tell me why is the word pronoun " I " always capital letter?

Question

I'm talking about the pronoun I, as in : "I went to school today".
I was told when I took English classes that the correct way to write it is " I ", not " i ".
But why?


Thank you!

oh.... no, it does not bother me, it was just a question I had, but it doesn't bother me at all....

Answer 1

First, all of the bits about "ego" are nonsense. And for those who say "because it's a substitute for my name", how is that any different from the other pronouns??

No, the answer (as one person has noted, another has surmised) is -- the convention developed in handwritten manuscripts (200 yrs before the printing press) to avoid confusion, perhaps esp. of reading it as the last letter of the previous word. (I have not investigated this detail, but I suspect the fact that much LATIN was included in writing, and that Latin words often end with case-ending vowels, played a role.)

For a source see the following:

"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).""
http://www.alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxwhyisi.html

I haven't seen it written up anywhere, but I would surmise that the same explanation may be given for the practice of capitalizing the one-letter word "O" (as opposed to "oh" which is not capitalized)

Answer 2

"The word 'I' came to be written with a capital letter 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)."

Answer 3

No one is exactly sure. But, what is known is that It is a remnant from Middle English. And most believe it has a practical reason, just to make sure it did not get lost in a sentence, that little stick all alone afterall is dificult to see. Back then, scribes wrote everything and the handwritten letter is not as neat or clear as a mechanical or digital letter.
Also, perhaps it was used to differentiate it from the number 1, or maybe because it usually is the first word in a sentence. Many theories crop up, you have to search linguists for deeper clues to this.

Answer 4

because it's a proper noun, even if it's a pronoun and you are the subject.

so for example, if your name was John and you're talking about yourself, you can't say,

"John is handsome."

because that would be grammatically incorrect and you'd be talking in the third person and people would think you're talking about some other guy named John.

so in place of the name "John" you put the letter "i". but since the letter "i" will serve as your name, it will then become a proper name, therefore you'll need to capitilize it.

so the right sentence would be, "I am handsome."

Answer 5

Because when u use I, u r referin to an individual that is urself. Like sayn someones name which starts with a capital letter eg Mark, Brian etc. Hope this helps

Answer 6

It began to be capitalized c.1250 to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts.

Answer 7

I have answered a question quite like yours before in Yahoo! Answers, but it seems to be popping up every so often.
The spelling rules in English require that any word which consists of only one letter be capitalized. That's why we spell "I" and "O" with a capital letter, but not "my" or "oh". It has nothing to do with grammar; only with spelling.

Answer 8

Convention. Think of it like driving on one side of the road. Everybody has to follow the same rules to prevent conflicts.

If you are really that bothered with it, become a poet. Poets in particular are given a much more free run on the language, they often circumvent conventional grammar, punctuation, syntax and so on.

Answer 9

because it is an pronoun that descibes a person. When writing about a person by name or description you always capitalize that Name or Description.

Answer 10

I guess that for most people, I is the most important word. Imagine if we could change the rules and write You with capital letter!