Subject: Re: 'I' am a PiG
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 07:39:29 +0200


It looks arrogant etc., but actually in the history of the English language
I came to be capitalized in order to be distinguishable from surrounding
continuity of manuscript graphemes which mostly consisted in strokes, thus
making it extremely difficult to distinguish m, n, u, i etc. In order to
clarify that certain words did not start in m but in (both of which looked
quite the same in the ductus of manuscripts) writers started to capitalize
I, not only for the personal pronoun but also for all words starting with I,
which is why even in Malory in the late 15thc and sometimes beyond that to
the 18th century we have old spellings of "immediately" as Incontinent he
spoke and saide to his master.... 



-----------------------------
Prof. Dr. Monika Fludernik
Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg
Englisches Seminar
D-79085 Freiburg im Breisgau/Germany

FAX  ++49  761  203  3359



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