Today I Learned: Why Do We Write the Pronoun "I" in Upper Case?

While having launch earlier, I was reading some articles and I was bothered by that small letter "i" in one article posted here. I have to be honest that I am really particular with grammar and semantics. I always made it a conscious effort to edit my posts multiple times before uploading them. There are cases when it takes one week before I can finally upload my post. Of course, that includes making the letter "I" capitalized when I'm referring to myself.

Since it was taught way back in elementary that we have to write the letter "I" in upper case, it was embedded in my system to follow the rule. It became natural to me that when I'm writing on my phone, I always press the up arrow first before pressing the letter 'I' in the screen keyboard, sometimes unconsciously.

Now, when I'm reading, I always cringe over the letter "i" that was not capitalized. Not because I am a Grammar Nazi (probably, I am and I just don't know), but because it just felt too unnatural for me. Well, I can't blame others for having their "i" not capitalized. Sometimes we're just tired to press the up arrow or we're simply tired to edit our posts. I feel that too, but there are greater forces in me dictating that I should capitalize the letter "I".

While eating, I asked Vanessa (@baneeable) and Xayd (@xaydtrips) why the letter "I" should be capitalized. They also don't know the answer. You see, these are the things we simply ignore to ask and just blindly follow because it is more convenient to just accept things the way they are than keep asking for answers to our questions. Collectively, we decided to know the logic behind why the rule was set to be that way. I guess we can call this post a group effort.

How about you? Did you know the reason why the letter "I" should be written in upper case? You can comment below before you read further.

What confused me when I searched for reasons was that capitalization of pronoun "I" was not included in the Capitalization Rules of grammarbook.com. Is this rule too basic and self-explanatory that it was not included? By the way, for those who are struggling in their grammar and punctuation, I suggest you visit that site. Anyway, I was really wondering why it was not included since the site has an extensive list of capitalization rules. To that question, I might not be able to find the answer.

Googling further, it's a good thing that I found one site that mentioned the capitalization of pronoun "I". In 10 Rules of Capitalization of grammar.yourdictionary.com, it was mentioned in No. 10 as follows:

It’s only necessary to capitalize other pronouns when they begin a sentence, but "I" is always capitalized.

In a community forum called English Stack Exchange, the same question was asked and the people there aired their thoughts on why "I" should be capitalized. One noted that it's a common practice to use the small letter "i" specially when using your phones, but it's not grammatically correct. Another pointed out that it's not about grammaticality, but more on typographical convention. I don't know which is correct of the two or both of them are correct, but I think that I'm stuck in this rabbit hole and the bottom is still too far. Anyway, this was mentioned in the site:

The pronoun form of I should be capitalized in all cases where it stands alone. However, a word beginning with that letter follows normal capitalization rules.

Remember that! "I" should always be capitalized! Why? Let's move on and find out.

If you're familiar with Quora, a question-and-answer site, this is where I found the answer that I was looking for. Of course, Wikipedia was helpful for starters, but I chose to have an answer from linguists.

At first, the answers from the community at Quora were because by the time Chaucer wrote the manuscript of The Canterbury Tales in the late 1300s, the letter "I" was slightly taller than most of the letters in the text. From then on, "I" was capitalized, although lower case "i" can be seen in texts in 1700s. That's 400 years in transition.

Personally, I was not satisfied of the story about Chaucer because I believe that there must be a logical explanation why "I" was capitalized. Since Chaucer capitalized "I", there must be something in syntax and semantics of sentences which can be a logical explanation why a rule like that exists.

Digging some more at Quora, people shared an article from The New York Times which was published 10 years ago. This article entitled Me, Myself and I by Caroline Winter, tackled the question why capitalize "I". In Old and Middle English, "I" was still "ic" or "ich". As language evolves, the changes of its spoken form led to the stripped word in written form. The newly formed word "i" was still lower case in most written texts during the transition. It was in England where the capital "I" without the dot was frequently used.

Based on the article, the most logical reason and a generally accepted one is that the newly formed word "I" could not stand alone as a single-letter word. Early typography had to make "I" bigger or taller, which is equivalent to a capital letter, in order to put emphasis on a thin and skinny (just like me) "I" as a pronoun.

According to Charles Bigelow, small letter "i" is too small and wimpy to carry a semantic burden. He added that graphically speaking, "i" looked like a lost letter, added by accident, or broke off by its original word. Graphically, small letter "i" might be construed as something that broke off from its adjacent words, which posed a problem when you are reading as interpretation might be affected.

There you have it! Early linguists and scribes had to make "I" larger, equivalent to a capital letter, in order to eliminate the problems associated with its semantics.

My Take On This

I learned something new today! Something out of the ordinary was a rich and colorful history which is worth digging. Also, there must be a logical explanation why rules and conventions are set.

So, don't forget to capitalize your "I"! Even if in this era of emails and texting where small letter "i" was often used, it's good to know that there is logical basis why the rule of capitalization of "I" was set.

Stay curious!

Special thanks to Vanessa and Xayd for sharing this curiousity with me.

References:
[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_pronoun
[2]https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/capital.asp
[3]grammar.yourdictionary.com/capitalization/10-rules-of-capitalization.html
[4]https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/33114/should-i-be-capitalized-or-in-lower-case
[5]www.dictionary.com/e/whycapitali/
[6]https://mobile.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03wwln-guestsafire-t.html
[7]https://www.google.com.ph/amp/s/www.urbandictionary.com/define.php%3fterm=Grammar+Nazi&amp=true

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