Why is it that 'I' is capitalised and 'you' is not?

Question

In German there are different forms of 'you'. The polite form, 'Sie' is always capitalised.

Leeincognito is wrong about German. Not all German pronouns are capitalised. Examples of how he is wrong include 'er' 'ihm' 'ihr', i can go on!

Jiff L. If you want episodes of TMWRNJ on your computer email me at
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Jiff L. If you want episodes of TMWRNJ on your computer email me at
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Jiff L. If you want episodes of TMWRNJ on your computer email me at
[e-mail]

Answer 1

It has nothing at all to do with vanity (thinking "I" am more important), nor where it appears in a sentence, and everything to do with avoiding confusion.

Here's the historical explanation, as offered by the Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology --

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


Similarly in the Online Etymology Dictionary, which adds some info (quoting Otto Jesperson):

"The reason for writing I is ... the orthographic habit in the middle ages of using a 'long i' (that is, j or I) whenever the letter was isolated or formed the last letter of a group; the numeral 'one' was written j or I (and three iij, etc.), just as much as the pronoun."
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=I

Notice that the single-letter "O" (used, for instance, when addressing someone, e.g., "O king, live forever!") is likewise always capitalized, while the similar word "oh" (an interjection expressing emotion, as is "Oh dear!") is ONLY capitalized when at the beginning of a sentence. I believe this happened for the very same reason as "I" (vs. "ik")

Answer 2

It to do with sentance structue..

I is the first person participle (To take part in something) and each simple sentence must have two sections.

A simple complete sentence consists of a subject and a predicate.

The subject is typically a noun phrase, though other kinds of phrases (such as gerund phrases) work as well, and some languages allow subjects to be omitted - English is not one of them.

The predicate is a finite verb phrase: it's a finite verb together with zero or more objects, zero or more complements, and zero or more adverbials.

According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the other being its predicate. In English, subjects govern agreement on the verb or auxiliary verb that carries the main tense of the sentence, as exemplified by the difference in verb forms between he eats and they eat.

predicate is an expression that can be true of something. Thus, the expressions "is yellow" or "likes broccoli" are true of those things that are yellow or like broccoli, respectively. The latter notion of a predicate is closely related to the notion of a predicate in formal logic, and includes more expressions than the former one, like, for example, nouns and some kinds of adjectives.

I (the speaker/writer) is a first person pronoun, you (the listener/reader) is a second person pronoun, and he/she/it are third person pronoun. First and third person pronouns also have a plural form: we (first person plural) and they (third person plural), whereas you is both the singular and plural form.

When constructing compound sentances, the 'i' in Latin manuscripts could be mistaken for the number 1, thus English monks came to write the person pronoun (I)
with a capital letter thereby making it a distinct word and avoiding misreading. In the Northumberland and Mercian
dialects of Saxon 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

I can think of three valid and simple reasons:

"I" used as a pronoun is designated as 'first person' and "you" designated as 'second person' pronoun so as 'first' or 'Number One' always takes precedence over 'second' or 'Number Two', logically "I" is recognised to be more important or superior to "you" and therefore was decided to be presented as a capital.

Secondly, among all other pronouns, "I" is the only one with a single letter and also stands for the Roman numeral "1" which like "I" is first and foremost.

Thirdly, "I" is always used not only on important swearing-in occasions and included,followed by full name, in important legal and business documents but also mentioned more often than any other pronouns when we go about our day-to-day affairs as most of us people are rather ego-centric! Again it stands supreme, by itself and rightly so, deserves a capital.

Answer 4

I could say that I is the only personal pronoun with one letter in it. But that doesn't really answer your question.

A is not a personal pronoun and it is only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence. When the letter a is in the middle of a sentence it reverts back to its lower case form.

Not sure why?

Answer 5

The English language is a funny one to understand sometimes, with its strange rules and spellings and you have asked a very good question indeed! Im hardly sure about the answer but maybe because "I" is a single letter word so it is easier to write in capitals in the middle of a sentence rather than "YOU" whcih would seem a bit funny don't you think!? Plus "I" plays great more importance than "you!"
Well thats what i think anyway.
Hope that helped!

Answer 6

This goes into the depths of language itself. English as you know is a mixture of German, Norse, French, Anglo-Saxon and Latin. The english language even today still uses the the old Latin forms of sentence construction : Nominative cases are found in Latin, Anglo-saxon, among other languages. English still retains some nominative pronouns, as opposed to the accusative case or oblique case: I (accusative, me), we (accusative, us), he (accusative, him), she (accusative, her) and they (accusative, them). An archaic usage is the singular second-person pronoun thou (accusative thee). A special case is the word you: Originally ye was its nominative form and you the accusative, but over time you has come to be used for the nominative as well. The Latin for the word I is "ego" but was rarely used, and when it was used it was only extensively used for extreme emphesis instead it was incorporated into the verb ending i.e. am(o) - I love, am(as) - thou lovest whereas the word you was independent depending upon its declension i.e. te, tuum, tuas, tuarum etc. When english replaced the Latin, it was necessary to differentiate the obscure word I, so from that time, even before language was formally standardised I with all its derivatives was capitalised i.e. I, I'm, I'll.

Answer 7

In English, the reason why 'I' is spelt with a capital 'I' is because 'I' am more important than 'you'.

Both words have the same sound as letters of the alphabet,
i and u - i comes before u.

Answer 8

I always thought it was because "I" is a one letter word, but "you" has three letters therefore it does not need to be distinguished.

of course other one letter words like "a" do not use a capital.

people are giving a lot of complicated answers which makes me think maybe there is more to it, i hope i learn something new (and correct!)

good question!


:)

Answer 9

I guess it is to distinguish from the letter 'i'. In Spanish and French, the words for I (je and yo respectively) are not capitalised.

Answer 10

To eliminate confusion regarding pronounciation. A capital "I" on its own (unlike a small "i" on its own) is always pronounced like the word "eye", no matter what.