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. In Australian English, British English and Irish English, me can refer to someone's possessions (see archaic and non-standard forms of English personal pronouns).

Personal pronouns in standard Modern English
Person (gender) Subject Object Possessive determiner Possessive pronoun Reflexive
Singular
First I me my mine myself
Second you your yours yourself
Third Masculine he him his himself
Feminine she her hers herself
Neuter it its itself
Plural
First we us our ours ourselves
Second you your yours yourselves
Third they them their theirs themselves

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 1600s.[1]

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 (an 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 hypothesised that the capitalization could have been prompted and spread as a result of one or more of the following:

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.

A folk legend tells of a printmaker who was convinced by the Faustian demon Mephistopheles to begin the practice of capitalizing "I".[2]

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.

Me as a subject pronoun

According to traditional grammar, the objective case appears only as the direct object of a verb, the indirect object of a verb, or the object of a preposition. But there are examples which meet with varying degree of acceptance which violate this rule.

Older versions

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
The Modern English is shown in italics below each Middle English pronoun
Person (gender) Subject Object Possessive determiner Possessive pronoun Reflexive
Singular
First
modern		 ic / ich / I
I 		me / mi
me 		min / minen [pl.]
my 		min / mire / minre
mine 		min one / mi selven
myself
Second
modern		 þou / þu / tu / þeou
you 		þe
you 		þi / ti
your 		þin / þyn
yours 		þeself / þi selven
yourself
Third Masculine
modern		 he
he 		him[lower-alpha 1] / hine[lower-alpha 2]
him 		his / hisse / hes
his 		his / hisse
his 		him-seluen
himself
Feminine
modern		 sche[o] / s[c]ho / ȝho
she 		heo / his / hie / hies / hire
her 		hio / heo / hire / heore
her 		-
hers 		heo-seolf
herself
Neuter
modern		 hit
it 		hit / him
it 		his
its 		his
its 		hit sulue
itself
Plural
First
modern		 we
we 		us / ous
us 		ure[n] / our[e] / ures / urne
our 		oures
ours 		us self / ous silve
ourselves
Second
modern		 ȝe / ye
you 		eow / [ȝ]ou / ȝow / gu / you
you 		eower / [ȝ]ower / gur / [e]our
your 		youres
yours 		Ȝou self / ou selve
yourselves
Third
modern		 heo / he / þa / þei / þeo / þo
they 		þem / his / heo[m] / þo
them 		heore / þeir / her
their 		-
theirs 		þam-selue
themselves
  1. ↑ Dative case, indirect object
  2. ↑ Accusative case, direct object

Many other variations are noted in Middle English sources due to difference in spellings and pronunciations. See Francis Henry Stratmann (1891), A Middle-English dictionary (A Middle English dictionary ed.), [London]: Oxford University Press and A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 TO 1580, A. L. Mayhew, Walter W. Skeat, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1888.

Personal pronouns in Early Modern English
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
plural or formal singular ye, you you your yours
3rd person singular he/she/it him/her/it his/her/his (it)[# 2] his/hers/his[# 2]
plural they them their theirs
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The genitives my, mine, thy, and thine are used as adjectives before a noun, or as possessive pronouns without a noun. All four forms are used as 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).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 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

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ Volume 1 of Historia von D. Johanni Fausten, dem weyt beschreyten Zauberer unnd Schwarzkünstler, Fridericus Schotus, Spies.

"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

Wren and Martin English Grammar book for High-schoolers.

External links

Look up I, me, mine, or my in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.