𐌹𐌺

Forms

𐌹𐌺 (ik), the personal pronoun of the first person singular.^[1][2] Its genitive is 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰 (meina), its dative 𐌼𐌹𐍃 (mis) and its accusative 𐌼𐌹𐌺 (mik).^[3][4] The Wulfila project lists the plural and dual forms under the same lemma; its counts are 𐌼𐌹𐍃 (mis) 361 times, 𐌹𐌺 (ik) 326, 𐌼𐌹𐌺 (mik) 271 and 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰 (meina) 52, and for the plural 𐌿𐌽𐍃 (uns) 189, 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍃 (weis) 90, 𐌿𐌽𐍃𐌹𐍃 (unsis) 84 and 𐌿𐌽𐍃𐌰𐍂𐌰 (unsara) 36, with the dual 𐍅𐌹𐍄 (wit) and 𐌿𐌲𐌺𐌹𐍃 (ugkis) a few times.^[5] With the relative particle it forms 𐌹𐌺𐌴𐌹 (ikei, "I who").^[6][7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *ek (“I”),^[8][4] which Orel writes *eka.^[9] Its cognates are Old Norse ek, Old English ic, Old Frisian ik, Old Saxon ic and Old High German ih.^[6][9] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *eǵh₂óm, comparing Sanskrit अहम् (ahám), Ancient Greek ἐγώ (egṓ), Latin ego and Old Church Slavonic азъ (azŭ).^[8] Lehmann separates an Indo-European form with a plain g, continued in Greek and Latin, from one with an aspirate, continued in Sanskrit and Avestan; he also reports the view that the oldest form was a bare stem to which particles were added.^[6] Orel likewise notes that the Sanskrit, Avestan and Slavic forms differ in phonetic and derivational details from the Greek and Latin ones.^[9] The other cases of the singular are built on a stem beginning with m-.^[10]

Attestation

The Wulfila project counts 1,418 tokens under the lemma, plural and dual forms included, of which 82 are ambiguous; they are spread over all the Gospels and Epistles, Nehemiah, the Skeireins and the deeds.^[5] Köbler counts 881 records of the pronoun.^[11] The manuscripts are CA, A, B, C, D, Car, E (the Skeireins) and Lat5750, and the deeds Naples and Arezzo.^[5] The first record is Matthew 5:22 in CA.^[5][11] In PROIEL's Gospels and Epistles the singular forms (840 tokens) render Ancient Greek ἐγώ (egṓ) 742 times and ἐμαυτοῦ (emautoû) 22 times.^[12] At Matthew 5:22 Jesus says aþþan ik qiþa izwis, "but I say to you".^[13]

Meanings

1. I, the speaker referring to himself or herself; for Ancient Greek ἐγώ (egṓ).^[1][11][8]

Word family

• 𐌹𐌺𐌴𐌹 (ikei, “I who”)

Related words

• 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (meins, “my”)

Usage notes

Schulze notes that the nominative is added to a verb only when it is stressed: in contrasts, after jah "and", or where a participial clause is resolved into a finite one.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910), Die gotische Bibel, II: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ik
2. ^ Braune, Wilhelm; Heidermanns, Frank (2004), Gotische Grammatik, mit Lesestücken und Wörterverzeichnis, 20th ed., Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken germanischer Dialekte A 1, Tübingen: Niemeyer, p. 284
3. ^ Regan, Brian T. (1974), Dictionary of the Biblical Gothic Language, Phoenix: Wulfila House, p. 88
4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 115
5. ^ a b c d De Herdt, Tom (2004–2026), Project Wulfila: digital edition of the Gothic Bible with lemma and morphological annotation, data release 2026-09-03, wulfila.be
6. ^ a b c Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. ik
7. ^ Lambdin, Thomas O. (2006), An Introduction to the Gothic Language, Eugene, Or.: Wipf and Stock, p. 178
8. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. 𐌹𐌺
9. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 83
10. ^ Krause, Wolfgang (1963), Handbuch des Gotischen, 2nd ed., München: Beck, p. § 175
11. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ik
12. ^ Haug, Dag T. T. et al., PROIEL Treebank: The Gothic Bible (gothic-nt), 2023 release, Pragmatic Resources in Old Indo-European Languages, University of Oslo
13. ^ De Herdt, Tom (2004–2026), Project Wulfila: digital edition of the Gothic Bible with lemma and morphological annotation, data release 2026-09-03, wulfila.be, p. Mt 5:22
14. ^ Schulze, Ernst (1867), Gothisches Wörterbuch nebst Flexionslehre, Züllichau: Darnmann, p. 100