# I ...



## Artrella

Hello my friends!  I want to know why is it that the first person in English is written with capital letters.  Do you know the origin of this custom?
Does this happen in other languages around the world?

Thank you!


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## weird

Artrella said:
			
		

> Hello my friends!  I want to know why is it that the first person in English is written with capital letters.  Do you know the origin of this custom?
> Does this happen in other languages around the world?
> 
> Thank you!



Hola, esto es lo único que he encontrado:

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

Sigo buscando...


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## timpeac

Artrella said:
			
		

> Hello my friends! I want to know why is it that the first person in English is written with capital letters. Do you know the origin of this custom?
> Does this happen in other languages around the world?
> 
> Thank you!


 
I believe that German Du and Sie get capital letters for "you" (or is it just Sie?). Also doesn't Usted in Spanish get capitalised?


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## supercrom

No, usted is never capitalized only when you write Ud. (abbreviation). And Spanish is español in lowercase letters... English always writes languages, days, months and nationalities in uppercase letters.

*CROM*


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## timpeac

cromteaches said:
			
		

> No, usted is never capitalized only when you write Ud. (abbreviation). And Spanish is español in lowercase letters... English always writes languages, days, months and nationalities in uppercase letters.
> 
> *CROM*


 
Ah thanks, it must be the abbreviation I am thinking of. That's odd though isn't it, the less formal abbreviated form getting the capital letter.


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## Artrella

timpeac said:
			
		

> I believe that German Du and Sie get capital letters for "you" (or is it just Sie?). Also doesn't Usted in Spanish get capitalised?




In German "du" is written in lower case letters and "Sie" only when it is the formal way of addressing to a person.
The "Usted" I am not sure if it is written in capital letters.  I have to check that.


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## supercrom

I know that German writes a lot of nouns in uppercase letters such as Ich and Dich and more...
English is a Germanic language (they are linguistically related in the same family), you must suppose why they are so close related.

*CROM*


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## alc112

cromteaches said:
			
		

> I know that German writes a lot of nouns in uppercase letters such as Ich and Dich and more...
> English is a Germanic language (they are linguistically related in the same family), you must suppose why they are so close related.
> 
> *CROM*


 
No Crom. En alemán se escriben con mayúscula todos los Sustantivos: der Mann (hombre), das Kind (niño), die Frau (mujer/señora).
Ich y du son pronombres personales
Mich y dich son pronombres reflexivos


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## Artrella

cromteaches said:
			
		

> I know that German writes a lot of nouns in uppercase letters such as Ich and Dich and more...
> English is a Germanic language (they are linguistically related in the same family), you must suppose why they are so close related.
> 
> *CROM*




Crom, I have to disagree with you.  In German "ich" is written in lowercase letters, and so it is "dich".


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## supercrom

Uyyy, metí la pata aquí... no sé de alemán, tal vez me aventuré un poco...

Disculpas subyacentes.

*CROM*


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## Whodunit

timpeac said:
			
		

> I believe that German Du and Sie get capital letters for "you" (or is it just Sie?). Also doesn't Usted in Spanish get capitalised?





			
				timpeac said:
			
		

> In German "du" is written in lower case letters and "Sie" only when it is the formal way of addressing to a person.





			
				timpeac said:
			
		

> No Crom. En alemán se escriben con mayúscula todos los Sustantivos: der Mann (hombre), das Kind (niño), die Frau (mujer/señora).
> Ich y du son pronombres personales
> Mich y dich son pronombres reflexivos





			
				timpeac said:
			
		

> Crom, I have to disagree with you. In German "ich" is written in lowercase letters, and so it is "dich".





			
				timpeac said:
			
		

> No te preocupes, alemán un idioma muy dificl, es muy permitido equivocarse.



It's good to see your German knowledge. Up to now it's all correct.


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## Lancel0t

Artrella said:
			
		

> Does this happen in other languages around the world?



I = Ako in Filipino. It is only capitalized if it starts the sentence. 
ex. 
I am a Filipino. Ako ay Filipino. 
You and I are always happy together. Ikaw at ako ay masayang magkasama lagi.


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## JLanguage

I think the capitalised first-person is unique to English, it seems almost impossible that it could be any other way [In English]. Perhaps another origin of the capitalised 'I' is that somewhere along the line some egocentric clergyman decided that the 'I' is most important and thus, needs emphasis. I think that its capitalization makes it stand out in English as the only pronoun to receive sich status.


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## Artrella

I agree with you about the egocentricity... but does anyone know a theory or something that tries to explain the roots of this fact?  Has always been like this?  Which language has initiated this custom?
England was invaded by the Danes, the French, Romans, Germans... which one of these invations gave origin to this capitalization?  French do not capitalise "je", Italians do no capitalise "io" nor do the Germans with "ich".  I must admit that this is nowadays, maybe in the past some of these peoples used to capitalise this pronoun.  
I have always been interested in the origin of this, but I couldn't find so far an explanation.


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## lainyn

I don't think it's so much egocentricity, but rather (aside from any historical reasons) that it is only one letter, and in order for the rather significant indication it gives (of who is the subject of the sentence) to be recognized, it needs to be capitalized. That is to say, for it to be recognized as a word, not just an article like "a", as opposed to a letter "i". 

Ah well, maybe this is a defensist arguement.


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## sohc4

Artrella said:
			
		

> In German "du" is written in lower case letters and "Sie" only when it is the formal way of addressing to a person.
> The "Usted" I am not sure if it is written in capital letters.  I have to check that.



Well, in German "du" and "sie" is usually lowercase, unless it is used to address somebody e.g. in a letter, then both "du" and "sie" (and the forms derived therefrom, as "dich", "ihr", "dein") used to be capitalized, e.g.:

"Ich habe mich über Deinen Brief gefreut. Wie geht es Euch?"

Used to be, because the use of capitalization in that cases was decreasing over the last couple of years.  Meanwhile you may even officially also use lowercase there:

"Ich habe mich über deinen Brief gefreut. Wie geht es euch?"

In Italian, "Lei" as the formal address is capitalized.

Axl


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## araceli

Hello:
I agree with lainyn: I just thought that *I* is a poor  thin single letter that needs to be capitalized in order to better see it .  
Regards.


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## Artrella

sohc4 said:
			
		

> Well, in German "du" and "sie" is usually lowercase, unless it is used to address somebody e.g. in a letter, then both "du" and "sie" (and the forms derived therefrom, as "dich", "ihr", "dein") used to be capitalized, e.g.:
> 
> "Ich habe mich über Deinen Brief gefreut. Wie geht es Euch?"
> 
> Used to be, because the use of capitalization in that cases was decreasing over the last couple of years.  Meanwhile you may even officially also use lowercase there:
> 
> "Ich habe mich über deinen Brief gefreut. Wie geht es euch?"
> 
> In Italian, "Lei" as the formal address is capitalized.
> 
> 
> Axl



I didn't know this fact Axl, thank you for teaching us.  So you say that nowadays is is no longer in use? Do you know the reason why that usage applied in the past?  Was it only with certain prononuns?

Let me add something I've recently "discovered" thanks to the Italian-English forum.  The word "arriveder*L*a" has this capital "l" in the middle of the word.  Why? because it is the formal way of saying "arrivederci" .  It seems, according to the explanation my teacher gave us that "a-rriveder -ci" is "until-see again-us" (the Italian forer@s maybe have to correct this) , but "a-rriveder- La" in this case "La" refers to "your person" so it'd be "until-see again-your person".  We see that in the second word there is more distance between speaker and listener.


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## Whodunit

sohc4 said:
			
		

> Well, in German "du" and "sie" is usually lowercase, unless it is used to address somebody e.g. in a letter, then both "du" and "sie" (and the forms derived therefrom, as "dich", "ihr", "dein") used to be capitalized, e.g.:
> 
> "Ich habe mich über *d*einen Brief gefreut. Wie geht es *e*uch?"
> 
> Used to be, because the use of capitalization in that cases was decreasing over the last couple of years.  Meanwhile you may even officially also use lowercase there:
> 
> "Ich habe mich über deinen    Brief gefreut. Wie geht es euch   ?"
> 
> In Italian, "Lei" as the formal address is capitalized.
> 
> Axl



Well, "du", "ihr", "sie" and all their forms are always lower-cased, unless you use "Sie" as the formal address. Nowadays, the new spelling reform is right, and we have to forget about the old one.


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## sohc4

Artrella said:
			
		

> I didn't know this fact Axl, thank you for teaching us. So you say that nowadays is is no longer in use? Do you know the reason why that usage applied in the past? Was it only with certain prononuns?
> 
> Let me add something I've recently "discovered" thanks to the Italian-English forum.  The word "arriveder*L*a" has this capital "l" in the middle of the word. Why? because it is the formal way of saying "arrivederci" . It seems, according to the explanation my teacher gave us that "a-rriveder -ci" is "until-see again-us" (the Italian forer@s maybe have to correct this) , but "a-rriveder- La" in this case "La" refers to "your person" so it'd be "until-see again-your person". We see that in the second word there is more distance between speaker and listener.



The capitalization was only used if you addressed the recipient(s) directly. I think it was a form to express special courtesy.  But it's kind of outdated (though you will probably still find it), and, as Whodunit pointed out, it shouldn't be used anymore.  I am still using it from time to time if I want to let a letter (or email) look more formal, but I will probably drop that .

As to the Italian, yes, you are absolutely right.  I would like to add, though, that you also find e.g. "arreviderla", but in that case "la" refers to a third person - "arreviderla" is "until-see again-him" (or even "a-re-vider-la" - "until-again-see-him").  The capitalization is only used for the formal address.  "La" (formal, third person singular) as opposed to "ti" (colloquial/informal, second person singular).

Cheers,
Axl


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## jmx

araceli said:
			
		

> Hello:
> I agree with lainyn: I just thought that *I* is a poor thin single letter that needs to be capitalized in order to better see it .
> Regards.


I agree !! because in my own language, spanish, we have a word that should be written *i* , but it is written *y* instead ! One of the few irregularities in writing spanish, and for me clearly the origin is also that an 'i' by itself looks so tiny. Nevertheless, in catalan they write the same word *i* :
dias y noches -> dies i nits


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## Rob625

I can't give you any complete answer to this question, but here is as much as I know.

Capital letters used to be used a lot in books printed in English. Very often, the nouns were capitalized, as in German. But other words were given capitals too. There was no agreed set of rules, and a lot depended on the sense of the material and the taste of the writer or the typesetter.

Some time around the eighteenth century, we settled down more or less on the system, which is in use today: capitals for proper names, the start of sentences, "I", the names of months and days. The old usage of capitalizing the important words was restricted to titles of books, plays and chapters.

My impression is that the capital was kept for "I" because "i" looked too insignificant to stand on its own for an important word - the subject of a sentence. The only other words of one letter in English are the indefinite article - surely not important in itself - and the "o" as in "O for the wings of a dove!" - which usually starts a sentence anyway.

It always struck me as odd that "I" had a capital, because I was taught that the reason for saying "you and I" rather than "I and you" was that you should not make yourself important by putting yourself first. And yet the only other words that were capitalized oddly were "God" and "Lord" together with "He", "Him", "Thee", "Thou" when they refer to "Him". I can offer no resolution for this problem.


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## Artrella

Rob625 said:
			
		

> It always struck me as odd that "I" had a capital, because I was taught that the reson for saying "you and I" rather than "I and you" was that you should not make yourself important by putting yourself first. And yet the only other words that were capitalized oddly were "God" and "Lord" together with "He", "Him", "Thee", "Thou" when they refer to "Him". I can offer no resolution for this problem.




Exactly Rob! It's contradictory.  Anyway some of you agree on the capitalization of "I" because of the "size" of the letter "i" which makes sense, since in German "ich" has three letters, in Italian "io" two letters, French "je", Spanish "yo".  It could be a possible explanation.


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## sohc4

sohc4 said:
			
		

> "arreviderla" is "until-see again-him" Axl



Of course it should be "until-see again-her" 

Sbagliando si impera


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## JLanguage

Rob625 said:
			
		

> I can't give you any complete answer to this question, but here is as much as I know.
> 
> Capital letters used to be used a lot in books printed in English. Very often, the nouns were capitalized, as in German. But other words were given capitals too. There was no agreed set of rules, and a lot depended on the sense of the material and the taste of the writer or the typesetter.
> 
> Some time around the eighteenth century, we settled down more or less on the system, which is in use today: capitals for proper names, the start of sentences, "I", the names of months and days. The old usage of capitalizing the important words was restricted to titles of books, plays and chapters.
> 
> My impression is that the capital was kept for "I" because "i" looked too insignificant to stand on its own for an important word - the subject of a sentence. The only other words of one letter in English are the indefinite article - surely not important in itself - and the "o" as in "O for the wings of a dove!" - which usually starts a sentence anyway.
> 
> It always struck me as odd that "I" had a capital, because I was taught that the reason for saying "you and I" rather than "I and you" was that you should not make yourself important by putting yourself first. And yet the only other words that were capitalized oddly were "God" and "Lord" together with "He", "Him", "Thee", "Thou" when they refer to "Him". I can offer no resolution for this problem.


 
It seems pretty logical to me that the reason to capitalize I was to make it clearer and emhasized. There are no one-letter wors in English and thus to make sure it's always understood, someone somewhere bfgan to capitalize "I".


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## Rob625

sohc4 said:
			
		

> Of course it should be "until-see again-her"
> 
> Sbagliando si impera



Actually it is not 'her'. 'La' in arrivederla is the polite 'you'. Grammatically it corresponds to 'it', third person accusative. The pronoun refers to something like 'sua maiestà' ~ 'your majesty, highness, etc.' You can even write 'arrivederLa', because Lei used to be capitalized when used this way; but it is now considered rather old-fashoined to use the capital.


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## Hakro

sohc4 said:
			
		

> Well, in German "du" and "sie" is usually lowercase, unless it is used to address somebody e.g. in a letter, then both "du" and "sie" (and the forms derived therefrom, as "dich", "ihr", "dein") used to be capitalized, e.g.:
> 
> "Ich habe mich über Deinen Brief gefreut. Wie geht es Euch?"
> 
> Used to be, because the use of capitalization in that cases was decreasing over the last couple of years. Meanwhile you may even officially also use lowercase there:
> 
> "Ich habe mich über deinen Brief gefreut. Wie geht es euch?"
> 
> In Italian, "Lei" as the formal address is capitalized.
> 
> Axl


The same in Finnish.


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## judkinsc

I imagine it just comes from the fact that, until the 19th century and some uniformity in English, nouns tended to be capitalized, just like in German.  It probably continued to exist for the practical reason that "i" is a small letter, as was suggested, or maybe because it looks so different from the capital..., and  it was damaging to the ego of the writer to have a small "i".


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