Wondering about wild grapes

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Wondering about the word "I".

Have you ever wondered about the word "I" and also why is it capitalized and the "m" in me is not nor either is the "y" in you ?  Of course I have, I wonder about a lot of things.  Well, I have an answer for you.  It isn't because we think of ourselves at a much higher level than we do of other people.  No, it all began back many years ago with your friendly neighborhood printer.  It all had to do with setting print.

First, let me tell you that the first person back in Middle English was expressed with the word "ich".  It was eventually shortened to "i" in lowercase.  Printers had a hard time setting the lower case "i".  The letter was dropped unintentionally or it would run together with an other word.  To solve this problem, the printers started using the upper case "I" instead.  The practice stuck and to this day a capital "I" is used to mean me or you in the first person.  Now, I wonder why you very rarely hear about that "second" person?

Now I am going to head off to the flea market with my lovely wife.  I haven't been there  for many weeks.  My wife went with my son last Sunday when I was at the Top Fuel Drag races.  Don't forget, have a great day today, you hear?  BTW I think we may have broken a record low temperature here today.  It got down to 38 degrees at 06:30 this morning but it is warming up fast, it is now 43 at 08:15.

9 comments:

  1. I just know there's a treasure waiting for you at the flea market...

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  2. That's neat! Had no idea. Funny how everything influences everything else.

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  3. Trouble, no treasure today, maybe tomorrow.

    Sixbears, It is really funny how some things come into being. There are lots of things to wonder about.

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  4. I wonder about a lot of stuff, but never wondered about the I thing. ;)

    BTW it was up to 106 degrees here a few days ago and down to 35 night before last. That's one hell of a temp swing in just a couple of days.

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  5. I must admit that the capitalization of the letter "I" had never crossed my mind...but thank you for teaching me something new today.

    Who would of thought it would get to 38 in Houston in the month of May? Hope it killed a couple of mosquitos...hate those pesky things.

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  6. You have a way of making me wonder about things! Makes my head hurt, ya know?

    Good thoughts today. I hope you score at the flea market!

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  7. David, 71 degree swing in temperature would be hard to get used to. Glad it doesn't do that too often.

    MsB, It felt good to me. Cold air and hot sun is a good combination. Not bad as long as the wind is calm. Warms up real fast, though.

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  8. HJ, I guess I will have to send you some aspirin (grin).

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  9. History does rhyme. The i has been brought back to replace the I because of texting and tweeting and general laziness. We now also have u for "you" and ur or "you are" or "your" thereby avoiding a common grammar mistake.

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