Why Some Uppercase and Lowercase Letters Look Nothing Alike

Linguist Patrick Foote of Name Explain discussed the English alphabet, noting that certain letters differ visually between their uppercase and lowercase forms. Foote also explains how Roman Cursive and the Carolingian Minuscule became the basis for the modern English alphabet.

Most uppercase letters are made of straight lines and on the whole are way simpler in their design than lowercase letters we know today. This was all because they had to be carved into stone.  Papyrus…  eventually found its way to Rome and it allowed these letters to be …one of the go-to handwriting scripts used in ancient Rome all the way until the middle ages where it was usurped by the Carolingian Minuscule in the 8th century.

Charlemagne introduced the Carolingian Minuscule, the basis of lowercase letters.

His script was heavily based on Roman cursive, and it’s widely seen as the basis of the lowercase alphabet we all know and and love today. This cemented the idea that the Latin alphabet had two forms. Forms which would go on to be called uppercase and lowercase.