ich German · revision 35577

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=8th century, Old High German glosses|origins=ine-pro *eǵh₂óm}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ɪç/, [ʔɪç]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''ich'''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|gmh|ich]], [[inh|goh|ih]], [[inh|gmw-pro|*ik]], [[inh|gem-pro|*ek]].^(Kluge 2011|435)^(Wiktionary)^(EWA|5, 29) The same pronoun is [[got|𐌹𐌺|tr=ik]], [[non|ek]], [[ang|ic]], [[ofs|ik]] and [[osx|ik]], continued in [[en|I]], [[nl|ik]] and [[sv|jag]].^(Kluge 2011|435)^(EWA|5, 29)^(Orel 2003)

+

+ Germanic had a short and a long form, [[m|gem-pro|*ek]] and [[m|gem-pro|*ekan]].^(Kluge 2011|435)^(EWA|5, 29) The runic inscriptions still keep them apart, the short one at the start of a sentence and the long one as an enclitic after the verb, and in the later languages they fell together.^(Kluge 2011|435) The EWA adds that the Old Swedish and Old Danish forms, whose vowel was broken, presuppose the long form, while the West Germanic forms generalised the unstressed pronunciation of the initial vowel.^(EWA|5, 29)

+

+ The Germanic forms go back to [[ine-pro|*eǵ]] and [[m|ine-pro|*eǵom]] “I”, which stand side by side in Slavic and perhaps in [[hit|uk]].^(Kluge 2011|435) Only the longer form is found in [[sa|अहम्|tr=ahám]], only the shorter in [[lt|aš]].^(Kluge 2011|435) A third ending, a long vowel, is seen in [[grc|ἐγώ|tr=egṓ]] and [[la|ego|alt=egō]], and probably in the emphatic Old High German form [[m|goh|ihha]].^(Kluge 2011|435)^(Orel 2003) Wiktionary reconstructs the pronoun as [[m|ine-pro|*eǵh₂óm]].^(Wiktionary) The other cases have been formed from a different stem, [[m|ine-pro|*me-]], since Indo-European times (see [[mein]]).^(Kluge 2011|435)^(Paul 2002) Kluge suggests a link with the demonstrative stem [[m|ine-pro|*ḱe-|t=this here]], though the difference in the initial consonant is unexplained.^(Kluge 2011|435)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Old High German ''ih'' is recorded from the 8th century, in the glosses (from 765) and in the literary texts, with about 6,500 occurrences, among them the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^(EWA|5, 29)^(Köbler AHD)^(Schützeichel 2012|163) Its spellings vary widely: ''ich'', ''ihc'', ''ik'', ''ig'', ''i'', and an enclitic ''-h''.^(EWA|5, 29)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The genitive was ''mein'' at first and was gradually replaced by the longer ''meiner'';^(Paul 2002) Luther has only ''mein'', and through the Bible it lived on for a long time in poetry, as in [[Vergissmeinnicht]].^(Paul 2002) From the 17th century letter-writers often left out an ''ich'' placed after the verb, in places into the 20th century, and since Early New High German the pronoun has been dropped in set formulas such as [[bitte]] and [[danke]] (from ''ich bitte'', ''ich danke'').^(Paul 2002) Southern German has the regional form ''i'', and Brandenburg ''ick''.^(Paul 2002)

+

+ Middle High German poets already used ''ich'' as a noun for the self: Lexer cites ''mîn ander ich'' “my other self”.^(Lexer 1872)^(Paul 2002) As das [[Ich]] it became a term of philosophy with Fichte (''Ich'' and ''Nicht-Ich'') and of psychoanalysis with Freud's ''Das Ich und das Es'' (1923), which set the ego between the id and the superego.^(Paul 2002) The derivative ''Ichheit'' dates from the 14th century, and ''Ichsucht'' (18th century) was coined as a German word for [[Egoismus]].^(Duden 7 2014|399) Paul attributes ''Ichsucht'' and ''ichsüchtig'' to Jean Paul.^(Paul 2002)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 765 – Old High German ''ih'' appears in glosses.^(Köbler AHD)

+ * 1060–1065 – Middle High German ''ich'' is used by Williram of Ebersberg.^(Köbler MHD)

+ * 14th century – First record of ''Ichheit'' “selfhood”.^(Duden 7 2014|399)

+ * 17th century – Letter-writers begin to leave out an ''ich'' placed after the verb.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 18th century – ''Ichsucht'' is formed as a German word for ''Egoismus''.^(Duden 7 2014|399)

+ * 1923 – Freud's ''Das Ich und das Es'' makes ''das Ich'' a term of psychoanalysis.^(Paul 2002)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Pronoun===

+ # [[m|en|I]]: the speaker or writer referring to themself, the first person singular in the nominative; genitive ''meiner'' (dated ''mein''), dative ''mir'', accusative ''mich'': ''Ich habe heute keine Zeit.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[Ichsucht]]

+ * [[ichsüchtig]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[mein]]

+ * [[Egoismus]]

+ * [[goh|ih]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Used as a noun, the word is neuter: das [[Ich]] (plural ''Ichs'') is the self of which one is aware, and in psychoanalysis the ego.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)^(Duden 7 2014|399)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}