As some of you may have noticed, i tend to leave my i's lowercase instead of using proper capitalization. This is not, as some of you may have assumed, because i never learned to capitalize my i's, but it is actually a habit i had to work to develop. Yes, i used to diligently capitalize my i's, so when i decided to start being rebellious against the English language it was actually hard for me to remember to not capitalize my i's. Now, it's grown on me entirely. To me, it feels and looks more natural, but let me explain why i started doing this.
I simply questioned why we capitalize our i's, and not our you's (yes, as in the word "you", not the letter). Originally, i's were just capitalized for practical reasons, none of which make any sense anymore, and now, there is no logical reason, grammatical or otherwise, for doing so. Of course, English is riddled with irregularities as all natural languages are, so why did i choose to ignore this particular rule?
In addition to the above, English is the only language that does this, and i have to wonder if it may have an effect on the English-speaking world. I sympathize with journalist Sydney J. Harris' sentiment that "It's odd, and a little unsettling, to reflect upon the fact that English is the only major language in which "I" is capitalized; in many other languages "You" is capitalized and the "i" is lower case". It seems a bit self-righteous, doesn't it? Leaving myself lowercase and capitalizing You has been humbling.
For these reasons, i choose to no longer capitalize my i's, and i'll start capitalizing my You's. I challenge You to do the same as an experiment. Then again, if you want to learn a language that is completely logical, there's always lojban. I'll leave you with this fun little poem:
I simply questioned why we capitalize our i's, and not our you's (yes, as in the word "you", not the letter). Originally, i's were just capitalized for practical reasons, none of which make any sense anymore, and now, there is no logical reason, grammatical or otherwise, for doing so. Of course, English is riddled with irregularities as all natural languages are, so why did i choose to ignore this particular rule?
In addition to the above, English is the only language that does this, and i have to wonder if it may have an effect on the English-speaking world. I sympathize with journalist Sydney J. Harris' sentiment that "It's odd, and a little unsettling, to reflect upon the fact that English is the only major language in which "I" is capitalized; in many other languages "You" is capitalized and the "i" is lower case". It seems a bit self-righteous, doesn't it? Leaving myself lowercase and capitalizing You has been humbling.
For these reasons, i choose to no longer capitalize my i's, and i'll start capitalizing my You's. I challenge You to do the same as an experiment. Then again, if you want to learn a language that is completely logical, there's always lojban. I'll leave you with this fun little poem:
Lets face it. English is a stupid language.
There is no egg in the eggplant
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England
French fries were not invented in France.
We sometimes take English for granted,
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that:
Quicksand takes you down slowly
Boxing rings are square
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
If writers write, how come fingers don't fing.
If the plural of tooth is teeth
Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth
If the teacher taught,
Why didn't the preacher praught.
If a vegetarian eats vegetables
What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?
Why do people recite at a play
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways
How can the weather be as hot as hell on one day
And as cold as hell on another
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy
Of a language where a house can burn up as
It burns down
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!
English was invented by people, not computers
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn't a race at all)
That is why:
When the stars are out they are visible
But when the lights are out they are invisible
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts
But when I wind up this poem
It ends.
There is no egg in the eggplant
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England
French fries were not invented in France.
We sometimes take English for granted,
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that:
Quicksand takes you down slowly
Boxing rings are square
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
If writers write, how come fingers don't fing.
If the plural of tooth is teeth
Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth
If the teacher taught,
Why didn't the preacher praught.
If a vegetarian eats vegetables
What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?
Why do people recite at a play
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways
How can the weather be as hot as hell on one day
And as cold as hell on another
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy
Of a language where a house can burn up as
It burns down
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!
English was invented by people, not computers
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn't a race at all)
That is why:
When the stars are out they are visible
But when the lights are out they are invisible
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts
But when I wind up this poem
It ends.
P.S. If quizzes are quizzical, then what are tests?
18 comments:
bebna .i la lojban bangu ko .i do glibau ciska ca srera
.iku'i mi jbobau ciska srera .i sa do ca glibau ciska srera li'o
> Then again, if you want to learn a
> language that is completely logical,
> there's always lojban.
Few people speak Lojban. More speak Esperanto. Did you try studying Esperanto? (http://www.lernu.net)
Malmultaj homoj parolas Loĵabanon. Pliaj parolas Esperanton. Ĉu vi provis studi Esperanton? (http://www.lernu.net)
Esperanto isn't culturally neutral nor is it logical.
Bah that poem is American English, not English at all. Poncy rotten American English.
In England we park on parking spaces, we drive on roads. Their not called French Fries but Chips.
It's a Phone Box not a phone booth and I've never heard anyone "Why do people recite at a play" which just sounds silly. Perhaps they recite a play, but not _at_ it since it's not a location.
Most of the weirdness is in the derivations, the way plurals work depend on the language the word was taken from and most confusing words are because of convergence for instance Hamburger comes from the German city of Hamburg, not the meat.
Good point, never thought about it.
But i also consider writing, or speaking in E-prime.
It really eliminates a lot of misinterpretation.
Got introduced to this by Robert Anton Wilson. It just makes sense to me.
http://www.rawilson.com/quantum.html
I always thought "I" was capitalized because it was one letter long. After all, we don't capitalize me, myself, mine, and so on (unlike You in some languages).
I Take It You Already Know...
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead - it's said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for pear and bear.
And then there's dose and rose and loose -
Just look them up - and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward.
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Man alive.
I'd mastered it when I was five!
-Anonymous
"English is stupid..."
Really, with all of the education going on the planet recently about not being insulting to groups of people, you make a statement like that?
"Swahili is stupid..." "Spanish is stupid..." "Chinese is stupid..." No, no, no and to yours no as well. Insulting peoples culture, language, religions, genders, lifestyles, is simply not acceptable.
Please thing next time before you post insulting commentary.
This is why no one has tried to "fix" the English language as you suggest.
Take these two lines of logic:
"If writers write, how come fingers don't fing."
"Why didn't the preacher praught."
Writers write, and Preachers preach. That's why preachers don't "praught".
Why do people nowadays think they can break English grammar for "political" reasons and get away with it?
+1 to sikon.
Good communication skillz are important.
Let's learn Lojban, people. Lojban definitely helped me get over my beef with the quirks of the English language.
Self-righteousness means judgment against another is based on one's own biases instead of an independent source. Saying I is self-righteous is a bit of the old associative reasoning. Kneejerk.
I is capitalized because in the real world no yOU can exist unless that yOU has an I for it to refer to. You is I's shadow for the same reason that non existent candles don't burn and non-existent cars can't be pimped.
Capitalizing you is a fantasy of mechanical fundamentalists who think they're dynamists.
Esperanto has words like malbuengusto. Give me a friggin break. What in the name of doubleplus ungood Newspeak is that?
Dumbass Americans. First you bastardise our language, then you blame us for it?
There are no apostrophes in plural words, so using one in "i's" is incorrect. (What you are saying is "I is" and that is also wrong.) If you correctly leave out the apostrophe, your word will look like "is", but if you capitalize the word "I" first and then place the s, it tells people you me the plural of the word "I". And please, do ot use the word "I's" as a possessive noun, because the word does not exist. The correct word is "my". Example: the party was at John and I's house. NO!!!!
TESTICLE
i absolutely love the poem, and it's so true!
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