Answer: Why do we capitalize "I" in English?
Have you ever wondered why we capitalize “I” I’ll be honest and say I haven’t. At least not during the last … 10 years. It’s become such a habit to write "I" without giving it a second thought. Yes, it does seem wrong when I don’t see "I" capitalized, but I never stop to think about the reason why not capitalizing it is actually considered wrong.
So here's an explanation on why we capitalize "I" in English!
Examples from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales nd J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
When did people start capitalizing "I"? Way back in the past, actually!
First, “I” is the shortened form of the Old English pronoun “ic”/”ich” (first person, singular, Nominative). The pronoun was shortened around mid-12th century in Northern England, as the pronunciation started to change and the “c” was slowly lost. This was after the dot started to appear on “I” (11th century), in order to distinguish it from strokes that were part of other letters (“m” and “n”)
At first, “i” was also written lowercase. Later though, according to etymonline.com, it began to be capitalized during mid-13th century in order to “mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts”.
Also, today it’s considered that the word needed to … “look” better, considering the weight it was carrying. Writing a simple “i”, lowercase, seemed too weak for the pronoun. After it was shortened, people started to write it taller than other lowercase letters, until it became a habit to write it as a capital letter: “I”
“I” as we know it today was used more and more during the 14th century. One of the first evidences can be found in the manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales written at the end of the 14th century). Here’s an example from The Knight’s Tale:
And thus with victorie and with melodye / Lete I this noble duk to Atthenes ryde, / And al his hoost, in armes hym bisyde. / And certes, if it nere to long to heere, / I wolde have toold yow fully the manere / How wonnen was the regne of Femenye / By Theseus, and by his chivalrye,
While in the northern and midland dialects of England, the capitalized form appeared around mid-13th century, it didn’t spread everywhere from the very beginning. In southern England, “I” was used in this form mostly starting the 18th century; before that, “ich” was commonly used, although “I” would be used, as well, but not as frequently used as "ich".
At present, the capitalized form is used everywhere. From books and articles to movie subtitles, you won’t find a single lowercase “i”, unless it’s a typo. Here’s one of my favourite Hermione quotes as evidence:
“I hope you’re pleased with yourselves. We could have all be killed - or worse, expelled. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed."
However, it’s becoming quite a popular habit to write everything, including the pronoun “I”, in lowercase when talking on the internet. It’s a lot easier to write it this way and it makes typing faster. It’ll probably remain only as a habit when typing on the internet, though.
Sources include: etymonline.com, alt-usage-english.org, nytimes.com, hotword.dictionary.com