OT: what's with the 'i'?

[Doug]

On 01/31/2013 12:17 PM, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> On Thu, 2013-01-31 at 17:34 +0100, Andras Simon wrote:
>>> Just out of interest, why do some people use the non-existent word
>> "i",
>>> not to mention other violations of capitalization rules when 1)
>> their
>>> Shift key is clearly not broken, and 2) they aren't the poet e.e.
>>> cummings? I've seen a number of people do this (admittedly a tiny
>>> minority) and never understood it. Do they think it's cool? Are they
>>> expressing their inner rebel? Were they punished by their English
>>> teacher at school? Is hitting Shift too much effort? Enquiring minds
>>> want to know.
>> I'd think it's the coolness thing. But highly intelligent people do it
>> occasionally, so I have no clue either.
> Yes, some of the Bell Labs people including none other than Ken Thompson
> were known for doing this, but ken gets a pass for obvious reasons :-)
>
> poc
>
I believe I have read that English is the only language that capitalizes the
first person.  German capitalizes the second person formal, both
singular and plural. (Sie.)  I think Dutch also capitalizes the second 
person
(U.)

--doug