I (pronoun): Difference between revisions
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{{Early Modern English personal pronouns (table)}} |
{{Early Modern English personal pronouns (table)}} |
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Revision as of 02:06, 27 May 2010
I (Template:Pron-en) is the first-person, singular personal pronoun (subject case) in Modern English. It is used to refer to one's self and is usually capitalized, although other pronouns, like he or she are not capitalized.
Template:Modern English personal pronouns (table)
Etymology
English I originates from Old English (OE) ic. This transformation from ic to i had happened by about 1137 in Northern England. Capitalisation of the word began around 1250 to clarify the single letter as constituting a full word: writers and copyists began to use a capital I because the lower-case letter was hard to read, and sometimes mistaken for part of the previous or succeeding word. This practice was already established by the introduction of movable type in the mid-15th century, and was also still considered to improve readability.[citation needed] 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.
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.
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.
The oblique forms are formed from a stem *me- (English me), the plural from *wei- (English we), the oblique plural from *ns- (English us).
Tables
| Nominative | IPA | Accusative | Dative | Genitive | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Singular | iċ | [itʃ] | mec / mē | mē | mīn | |
| Dual | wit | [wit] | uncit | unc | uncer | ||
| Plural | wē | [weː] | ūsic | ūs | ūser / ūre | ||
| 2nd | Singular | þū | [θuː] | þec / þē | þē | þīn | |
| Dual | ġit | [jit] | incit | inc | incer | ||
| Plural | ġē | [jeː] | ēowic | ēow | ēower | ||
| 3rd | Singular | Masculine | hē | [heː] | hine | him | his |
| Neuter | hit | [hit] | hit | him | his | ||
| Feminine | hēo | [heːo] | hīe | hiere | hiere | ||
| Plural | hīe | [hiːy] | hīe | heom | heora | ||
| Person / gender | Subject | Object | Possessive determiner | Possessive pronoun | Reflexive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | ||||||
| First | ic / ich / I I |
me / mi me |
min / minen [pl.] my |
min / mire / minre mine |
min one / mi seluen myself | |
| Second | þou / þu / tu / þeou you (thou) |
þe you (thee) |
þi / ti your (thy) |
þin / þyn yours (thine) |
þeself / þi seluen yourself (thyself) | |
| Third | Masculine | he he |
him[a] / hine[b] him |
his / hisse / hes his |
his / hisse his |
him-seluen himself |
| Feminine | sche[o] / s[c]ho / ȝho she |
heo / his / hie / hies / hire her |
hio / heo / hire / heore her |
- hers |
heo-seolf herself | |
| Neuter | hit it |
hit / him it |
his its |
his its |
hit sulue itself | |
| Plural | ||||||
| First | we we |
us / ous us |
ure[n] / our[e] / ures / urne our |
oures ours |
us self / ous silue ourselves | |
| Second | ȝe / ye you (ye) |
eow / [ȝ]ou / ȝow / gu / you you |
eower / [ȝ]ower / gur / [e]our your |
youres yours |
Ȝou self / ou selue yourselves | |
| Third | From Old English | heo / he | his / heo[m] | heore / her | - | - |
| From Old Norse | þa / þei / þeo / þo | þem / þo | þeir | - | þam-selue | |
| modern | they | them | their | theirs | themselves | |
what does this mean
| Nominative | Oblique | Genitive | Possessive | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | singular | I | me | my/mine[# 1] | mine |
| plural | we | us | our | ours | |
| 2nd person | singular informal | thou | thee | thy/thine[# 1] | thine |
| singular formal | ye, you | you | your | yours | |
| plural | |||||
| 3rd person | singular | he/she/it | him/her/it | his/her/his (it)[# 2] | his/hers/his[# 2] |
| plural | they | them | their | theirs | |
- ^ a b The genitives my, mine, thy, and thine are used as possessive adjectives before a noun, or as possessive pronouns without a noun. All four forms are used as possessive adjectives: mine and thine are used before nouns beginning in a vowel sound, or before nouns beginning in the letter h, which was usually silent (e.g. thine eyes and mine heart, which was pronounced as mine art) and my and thy before consonants (thy mother, my love). However, only mine and thine are used as possessive pronouns, as in it is thine and they were mine (not *they were my).
- ^ a b From the early Early Modern English period up until the 17th century, his was the possessive of the third-person neuter it as well as of the third-person masculine he. Genitive "it" appears once in the 1611 King James Bible (Leviticus 25:5) as groweth of it owne accord.
See also
References
- Gaynesford, M. de I: The Meaning of the First Person Term, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006.
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.]