I (pronoun)

This article is about the English personal pronoun. For other uses, see I (disambiguation).

I ( /aɪ/) is the first-person singular nominative case personal pronoun in Modern English. It is used to refer to one's self and is capitalized, although other pronouns, such as he or she, are not capitalized.

Personal pronouns in standard Modern English

		Singular				Plural
		Subject	Object	Possessive	Reflexive	Subject	Object	Possessive	Reflexive
First		I	me	my	myself	we	us	our	ourselves
Second		you		your	yourself	you		your	yourselves
Third	Masculine	he	him	his	himself	they	them	their	themselves
	Feminine	she	her		herself
	Neuter	it		its	itself

Etymology

Further information: Old English pronouns, Proto-Germanic pronouns, and Proto-Indo-European pronouns

English I originates from Old English (OE) ic. Its predecessor ic had in turn originated from the continuation of Proto-Germanic ik, and ek; ek was attested in the Elder Futhark inscriptions (in some cases notably showing the variant eka; see also ek erilaz). Linguists assume ik to have developed from the unstressed variant of ek. Variants of ic were used in various English dialects up until the 1600's.

Germanic cognates are: Old Frisian ik, Old Norse ek (Danish, Norwegian jeg, Swedish jag, Icelandic ég), Old High German ih (German ich) and Gothic ik and in Dutch also "ik".

The Proto-Germanic root came, in turn, from the Proto Indo-European language (PIE). The reconstructed PIE pronoun is *egō, egóm, with cognates including Sanskrit aham, Hittite uk, Latin ego, Greek ἐγώ egō and Old Slavonic azъ, Alviri-Vidari (a Iranian language) اَز (az)

The oblique forms are formed from a stem *me- (English me), the plural from *wei- (English we), the oblique plural from *ns- (English us).

Capitalization

There is no known record of a definitive explanation from around the early period of this capitalisation practice.

It is likely that the capitalization was prompted and spread as a result of one or more of the following:

• changes specifically in the pronunciation of letters (introduction of long vowel sounds in Middle English, etc.)
• other linguistic considerations (demarcation of a single-letter word, setting apart a pronoun which is significantly different from others in English, etc.)
• problems with legibility of the minuscule "i"
• sociolinguistic factors (establishment of English as the official language, solidification of English identity, etc.)

Other considerations include:

Capitalization was already employed with pronouns in other languages at that time. It was used to denote respect of the addresser or position of the addressed.

There is also the possibility that the first instances of capitalisation may have been happenstance. Either through chance or a sense of correctness, in the practice or the delivery, the capitalisation may have spread.

There are failings of many of these explanations based on other words, but there is the possibility that the factors or factor that prompted and/or spread this change may not have been applied to all similar words or instances.

Tables

Old English pronouns

			Nominative	IPA	Accusative	Dative	Genitive
1st	Singular		iċ	[ɪtʃ]	mec / mē	mē	mīn
	Dual		wit	[wɪt]	uncit	unc	uncer
	Plural		wē	[weː]	ūsic	ūs	ūser / ūre
2nd	Singular		þū	[θuː]	þec / þē	þē	þīn
	Dual		ġit	[jɪt]	incit	inc	incer
	Plural		ġē	[jeː]	ēowic	ēow	ēower
3rd	Singular	Masculine	hē	[heː]	hine	him	his
		Neuter	hit	[hɪt]	hit	him	his
		Feminine	hēo	[heːo]	hīe	hiere	hiere
	Plural		hīe	[hiːə]	hīe	heom	heora

Personal pronouns in Middle English

		Singular			Plural
		Subject	Object	Possessive	Subject	Object	Possessive
First		ik / ich / I	me	my(n)	we	us	oure
Second		þou / thou	þee / thee	þy(n) / thy(n)	ȝe / ye	ȝow / you	ȝower / your
Third	Impersonal	hit	hit / him	his	he þei / they	hem þem / them	her þeir / their
	Masculine	he	him	his
	Feminine	ȝho / scho / sche	hire	hire

Personal pronouns in Early Modern English

		Nominative	Objective	Genitive	Possessive
1st Person	singular	I	me	my/mine	mine
	plural	we	us	our	ours
2nd Person	singular informal	thou	thee	thy/thine	thine
	plural or formal singular	ye	you	your	yours
3rd Person	singular	he/she/it	him/her/it	his/her/his (it)	his/hers/his
	plural	they	them	their	theirs

See also

• English grammar
• English personal pronouns
• Grammar
• Personal pronouns
• Pronouns
• Self (disambiguation)

References

"Etymology of I". etymonline.com. Douglas Harper, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2010.

"Etymology of Me". etymonline.com. Douglas Harper, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2010.

Halleck, Elaine (editor). “Sum: Pronoun "I" again”. LINGUIST List 9.253., n.p., Web. 20 Feb. 1998.

Jacobsen, Martin (editor). “Sum: Pronoun 'I'”. LINGUIST List 9.253., n.p., Web. 20 Feb. 1998.

Mahoney, Nicole. “<http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/change.jsp> Language Change”. nsf.gov. n.p. 12 July 2008. Web. 21 Dec. 2010

Wells, Edward. "Further Elucidation on the Capitalization of 'I' in English". (a paper in progress). Lingforum.com. n.p., Web. 25 Dec. 2010

Further reading

• Howe, Stephen (1996). The personal pronouns in the Germanic languages: a study of personal pronoun morphology and change in the Germanic languages from the first records to the present day. Studia linguistica Germanica. 43. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3110146363. 
• Gaynesford, M. de (2006), I: The Meaning of the First Person Term, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199287821 .
• Wales, Katie (1996). Personal pronouns in present-day English. Studies in English language. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521471028. 

External links

• Video: Saul Kripke, The First Person, January 2006 — an analytic philosophical perspective. 70 minutes, hosted by Google video. [Kripke is sick with bronchitis and doesn't always speak into the microphone.]