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From: ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Capitalized pronouns
Message-ID: <590@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Jan-84 17:12:57 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.590
Posted: Tue Jan  3 17:12:57 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Jan-84 20:52:57 EST
References: <317@iheds.UUCP>
Organization: NTT Systems Inc., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 12

I seem to recall reading somewhere (and I believe) that the capitalization
of "I" is simply because it is such a small word that it would otherwise
get visually "lost", and similarly for "O".  (For that matter, the dot over
a small "i" is for much the same reason, though it is also true that in some
scripts it is otherwise impossible to distinguish "m" from "in".)

Perhaps the proper question, then, is why the other 1-letter word in English,
"a", is NOT capitalized.  I conjecture that this relates to the fact that it
was formerly the 2-letter word "an", which of course is still seen in some uses.

Any comments?
Mark Brader