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E.E. Cummings uses the prenoun I very sparsly and when he does he writes it: --- i
Helen of Troy uses this little i consequently. And sometimes I see it done elsewhere. Is there a trend to drop the I for the i?
If so, why?
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When E. E. Cummings refers to himself by name it is as "e. e. cummings". Orthography is not one of helen's strong points. If there's any tendency to lowercase the first person singular nominative pronoun it's part of a general idiotendency to lowercase everything. I know of no movement to lowercase just "I".
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So much the better. In a poem, sparsly used it may have a special meaning and looks allright.
In larger texts, as this pronoun is only a one letter sign, I think it looks poorly.
Oh,(Edit), I think Helen writes the little i on purpose,
not out of weakness.Furthermore and most of all, the cover pages of the books I have give E.E. Cummings with capitals and in the books he does not refer to himself, but writes nice poetry.
Last edited by BranShea; 12/10/2007 3:07 PM.
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Editorial changes--I think that this post is the first time I've seen e.e. cummings capitilized!
tempus edax rerum
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If you need proof, nothing I can do about it. E.E.C.
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Speaking of weird names, what's the weirdest? There's always The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. And I also recall a writer who named himself circle—not the word, mind you, but the shape. Edit: God bless Wikipedia.
Last edited by Hydra; 12/10/2007 5:14 PM.
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In the first link: "I am a small eye poet." Notice that he capitalizes the first-person singular, Maybe, I need a little more to prove he not merely capitalizing the first letter of the sentence. In the second link, the text of their "correctly" capitalized plaque: 4 PATCHIN PLACE
ONE-TIME HOME OF "POETandPAINTER" E. E. CUMMINGS (d. 1962) AND
HIS WIFE, MODEL AND PHOTOGRAPHER MARION MOREHOUSE (d. 1969) They capitalized everything! Did they think other people would put "e. e. cUMMINGS" in that situation? Is "POETandPAINTER" with no spaces something from the poet (and how is it capitalized there) or another example of Norman Friedman's superior orthography?
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or is Norman Friedman just a crank?
-joe (he asks for money to support his plaque!) friday
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veteran
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or is Norman Friedman just a crank?
-joe (he asks for money to support his plaque!) friday 
- ee milo
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If you had a plaque I'd support it, Joe.-  milo
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I'd use better toothpaste.
formerly known as etaoin...
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 This type? But anyway I think the English first person singular nominative pronoun better be capital because of mentioned before fact that it contains only one character. It really gets lost as a lowercase character in ordinary texts. ik or yo or je or ich have one of the 2 or 3 characters with an "extension", making the word better noticeable. For other languages it's too much work to find out what they all look like. Sorry. Maybe specialists pull it out if their sleeves just like that.
Last edited by BranShea; 12/11/2007 7:30 AM.
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