Why Does I Get Capitalised?

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SOURCES & FURTHER READING

[NameExplain]

What is the word for I (as in the personal pronoun) in your language?

[zennayo]

3:48 I mean, 私 can't even be capitalised

[imaadhaq]

4:45
"Oh he's going to say the Dutch word, ik"
"German"
"Oh he's going to say ich"
"Ik"

[somnvm]

"In fact english is the only langauge where it's represented with 1 letter"
in russian it's Я which is one letter in russian alphet. You could say that it's 2 sounds [ya], but so is I [i is pronounced with two sounds, ai]

[Belboz]

There's another exception to the lower-case personal pronoun rule... when referring to God. In Christian texts at least, not only is God capitalized whereas when referring to a Roman god it isn't... but so are the pronouns... "He, HIm, His", etc. If you wrote "I did it in God's name" you would likewise write "I did it in His name".

[lahsilaz]

By the way, German "ich" is not pronounced as "ick." The "ch-laut" is pronounced as the 'h' in "hue" (IPA: /ç/). The Old English word "ic" was also pronounced as you would pronounce "ich, " since 'c' was among some letters in Old English that became palatalized when near front vowels. "Ich" also interestingly lasted in southern English dialects all the way up till Shakespearean times, where he would mock the pronunciation in some of his plays.

[pentalarclikesit]

Also, "O" when used as an address, "O, my king!" etc

[sohopedeco]

I remember my 2nd grade English teacher justifying that we needed to capitalize "I" in English because only atheists don't do it. To this day, I don't know where she got that from.

[Olafje]

In Dutch, the formal singular form of "you" ("u") used to be capitalized, but now it's done rarely. This is an excellent moment to point out that "you" in English can have lots of possible transaltions in other languages. In Dutch, "you" could be: jij, je, jou, u, jullie

[JonahNelson]

i looks much nicer. It's like a little guy

[trufflefur]

In spanish "i" was our word for "and" but as it was so hard to read it got changed to "y"

[Itunusosanya]

I’m sorry the way he said “ wa-TAHH-shi” in 3:44😭😭😭

[luritdurit]

In danish the words Å, i and Ø are the only one letter words meaning
Å=small river
I=you(multiple)
Ø=island

[froggyness]

2:51 I would so much prefer a world where people just guessed someone’s name “oh look it’s Jim” “you know them?” “No I just gave them a name”

[oro]

3:36 in Russian “I” is “Я” — one letter, too

[Ardub]

The lettering in comics is traditionally done in all caps, to make the text easier to align and fit into panels. But there's still a visual distinction for the pronoun 'I' from how 'i' appears in other contexts: When the letter 'i' is in the middle of a word, a lot of comic artists write it as a single vertical line. But when it's the pronoun 'I', a word of its own, it almost always gets the horizontal serifs at the top and bottom to make it stand out visually.

[gargamel]

In Polish we have tons of single-letter words: a i w z o u

[leefisher]

Elmo just watched this... Elmo doesn't understand.

[HalfEye]

In German, the formal form of "you" ("Sie" or even "Ihr") is capitalized. But they are other pronouns. The pronoun "Sie" is translated "she" or "they" (3rd person singular or plural). The pronoun "Ihr" is nowadays not used anymore as it is very old and translates to, well, "you" but the 2nd person plural.
When Germany was a monarchy, "Sie" would be used for nobles and "Ihr" for the emperor himself (or the highest nobleman in the area). So, a rule of thumb.

[viloxy]

3:30 just wait until you hear about "я"