[…]It ill beſeemes a knight of gentle ſort, / Such as ye haue him boaſted, to beguyle / A ſimple maide, and worke ſo hainous tort, / In ſhame of knighthood, asI largely can report.
Sweet Baſſanio, My ſhips haue all miſcarried, my Creditors grow cruell, my eſtate is very low: my bond to the Iew is forfet, and ſince in paying it, it is impoſſible I ſhould liue, all debts are cleeredbetweene you andI if I might but ſee you at my death.
The wordI is always capitalised in written English. Other forms of the pronoun, such asme andmy, follow regular English capitalisation rules.
I is the subject (nominative) form, as opposed tome, which is the objective (accusative and dative) form.Me is also used emphatically, like Frenchmoi. In some cases there are differing views about which is preferred. For example, the traditional rule followed by some speakers is to useI as the complement of the copula (It is I), but it is now more usual to chooseme in this context (It's me).
When used in lists, it is often thought better to refer to oneself last. Thus it is more natural to sayJohn and I thanI and John. In such lists, the traditional rule is to use the same case form one would choose if there were only one pronoun. Thus, since we sayI am happy, we sayJohn and I are happy, but since we sayJenny saw me, so we sayJenny saw John and me. However, one frequently hearsJohn and me are happy, which is traditionally seen as a case error. Similarly, probably as ahypercorrected reaction to this, one can occasionally hear phrases likeJenny saw John and I.
a.1733,Thomas Boston, edited by [Thomas Boston the younger],Sermons and Discourses on Several Important Subjects in Divinity.[…], volume I, Edinburgh:[…] William Gray,[…], published1753, page333:
They are calledmen, becauſe each of them poſſeſſeth the whole man, though not wholly. There are by their means twoI’s in every believer,Rom. vii. 15.For that which I do,I allow not: for what I would,that do I not; but what I hate,that do I. There is not one part of the man that is in Chriſt, but grace has a part of it, and corruption has a part of it: as in the twilight there is light over all, and darkneſs over all too, the darkneſs being mixed in every part with the light. So my renewed part is I, a man having an underſtanding enlightened, a will renewed, affections ſpiritualized, uſing my body conform: but my unrenewed part is I too, having an underſtanding darkened, a will rebellious, affections corrupted, and uſing my body accordingly.
In other words, he said: “I have two natures. I have a flesh nature, an outside nature, and that keeps sinning; and then I have another nature—an inside, a spiritual nature—and that does not like sinning; and with my heart-power, my conscience-power, my love-power, with the power of the divine element that is in me, I look and see what this body outside, which clothes me, is trying to do. And here are twoI’s that are fighting. The insideI is arrayed against the outsideI; and the outside has the advantage.”
1916, S. A. Steel, “Down the James Long Ago—I”, inChristian Advocate, volume77, page1094, column 1:
Am I a double personality? Are there two “I’s” in my anatomy—one a conscious “I,” giving attention to what I am doing, and another unconscious “I,” giving attention to something entirely different?
1962,Arthur Osborne, editor,The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words, London: Rider & Company, published1975,page122:
B. (smiling): Have you come to examine me? You must say who you are. /D.: However much I may try, I do not seem to catch the ‘I’. It is not even clearly discernible. /B.: Who is it that says that the ‘I’ is not discernible? Are there two‘I’s in you, that one is not discernible to the other?
2011, Michael Gluckman,Making Your Wisdom Come Alive: A Guide to the Source of Your Wisdom and Joy, Light Up Your Life,→ISBN:
Who is it that says that ‘I’ is not perceptible? Is there an ignorant ‘I’ and an elusive ‘I’? Are there two‘I’s in the same person? It is the mind that says that ‘I’ is not perceptible. Where is that mind from? Know the mind. You will find it a myth. /We all feel that there is only oneI; not two, one ignorant of the other.
/i/ is from Middle High Germani in open syllables; in Ripuarian fromī before velars.
/iː/ is fromī before non-velars in Ripuarian; fromē in Ripuarian and northern Moselle Franconian; fromie, üe in southern Moselle Franconian; fromæ (œ) in some dialects.
In the German-based spelling,/e/ is usually represented byE (see there).
Use of the digraph IE
In the German-based spelling, longi is generally writtenie except when the German cognate has/iː/ as well and spells iti. Either spelling may be used in the following cases:
when the German cognate has only one vowel letter:Kies,Kis (GermanKäse);
In the Dutch-based spelling, both short/i/ and long/iː/ are generally writtenie except when the Dutch cognate has/i/ and spells iti. The short vowel is optionally indicated in open syllables by doubling the following consonant:piemmele,piemele.
2014, Diverse forfattere,Fire uger blev til fire år - og andre beretninger, Lindhardt og Ringhof→ISBN
Og så er der forresten lidt mere med det samme:I må love os een ting. mor og far,I må ikke efterligne os unge! — For gørI det, ja, så kommerI til at se så morsomme ud. —I må ikke prøve på at løbe fra jeres alder, for det kanI alligevel ikke.
And by the way, there's something else:You must promise us one thing, mum and dad,you may not imitate us young! — For ifyou do,you will look so funny. —you may not try to run way from your age, foryou can't do that anyway.
1981, Mogens Wolstrup,Vild hyben: danske forfattere skriver om jalousi
Men det er ikke jeres skyld, siger Ditte.I er unge og kloge.I er grimme og fantastisk smukke.I har modet!I er på rette vej med jeres show. Jeg føler med jeres oprør, og måske derfor kunne jeg ikke klare mere. Jeres hud er glat,I er startet i tide.
But it is not your fault, Ditte says.You are young and intelligent.You are ugly and amazingly beautiful.You have the courage!You are on the right path with your show. I feel with your rebellion, and perhaps for that reason, I couldn't take any more. Your skin is smooth,you started in time.
2011, Per Ullidtz,Absalons Europa, BoD – Books on Demand→ISBN, page 229
Og lidt senere ”I har hørt at det er sagt: øje for øje og tand for tand. Men jeg siger jer, atI må ikke sætte jer imod det onde; men dersom nogen giver dig et slag på din højre kind, da vend ham også den anden til! ...
And a little later ”you have heard it said: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you,you may not resist evil; but if anyone hits you on the right cheek, turn the other towards [whoever hit you]! ...
The Finnish orthography using the Latin script was based on those of Swedish, German and Latin, and was first used in the mid-16th century. No earlier script is known. Seethe Wikipedia article on Finnish for more information, andI for information on the development of the glyph itself.
The Kashubian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See theKashubian alphabet article on Wikipedia for more, andI for development of the glyph itself.
Historical Latin texts did not distinguish the consonantal and vocalic readings of this letter orthographically. In modern texts and editions of older texts, the vowels are typically written ⟨I⟩ and ⟨Ī⟩ to distinguish them, and /j/ is sometimes written ⟨j⟩. For example,iūdex may be spelledjūdex.
Proposed in 1908 as part of the new Latvian spelling by the scientific commission headed byK. Mīlenbahs, which was accepted and began to be taught in schools in 1909. Prior to that, Latvian had been written in GermanFraktur, and sporadically inCyrillic.
The loss of/t͡ʃ/ at first occurs in unstressed positions when the following word begins with a consonant. The pronunciation/iː/ results from restressing the unstressed pronunciation.
If ȝe hadden be of þe woꝛld .· þe woꝛld ſchulde loue þat þing þat was his / but foꝛ ȝe ben not of þe woꝛld · butI chees ȝou fro þe woꝛld .· þerfoꝛ þe woꝛld hatiþ ȝou
If you had been of the world, the world would love that which is its [own]; so the world hates you, because you aren't of the world. InsteadI picked you from the world.
1 Used preconsonantally or beforeh. 2 Early or dialectal. 3Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third person dual forms in Middle English. 4 Sometimes used as a formal 2nd person singular.
The Polish orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See thehistory of Polish orthography article on Wikipedia for more, andI for development of the glyph itself.
At the ends of words (except verb infinitives, and those ending in a consonant cluster ending inl orr), the letter palatalizes the previous syllable and is "whispered":/ʲ/
The Silesian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See theSilesian language article on Wikipedia for more, andI for development of the glyph itself.
From Gaj's Latin alphabetI, fromCzech alphabetI, from LatinI, from theEtruscan letter𐌉(i,“i”), from theAncient Greek letterΙ(I,iota), derived from thePhoenician letter𐤉(y,yod), from theEgyptian hieroglyph𓂝.
Lindström, Fredrik (2010) “Svårt att gissa arslets grundform [Hard to guess the lemma of arslet]”, inSpråktidningen[4] (in Swedish), number 5, retrieved14 July 2020
San Buena Ventura, Fr. Pedro de (1613) Juan de Silva, editor,Vocabulario de lengua tagala: El romance castellano puesto primero[5], La Noble Villa de Pila, page402: “Madre) Y) de Iuan Pedro o de otro, ante pueſta eſta letra, vt. y ſico , madre de Francisſco, y Pero, madre de Pedro, y Pili, nahaan ſi y Talina? do eſta la madre de Catalina?”
R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “I”, inGeiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
