Etymology of the Ego-Pronoun („I“)

Joannes Richter

It is a miracle to identify the Indo-European personal pronouns for the 1 st person

singular (“I”) as images of the first human beings “Adam”.

A substrate layer of pronouns “man”

There must have been a substrate layer of pronouns as defined in the Proto-European
language (PIE). This substrate may be identified by the word “man”, which is an
Ego-pronoun in Tajik (ман (“Man”) and Persian ( ‫ ﻣَﻦ‬- man ).
In western Europe similar “man”-pronouns may be found in Finnish (minä ), Kurdish
( mɪn ) and generally in all languages which are using “me”-pronouns such as Breton
(me ), Walloon , Belgium (dji; mi 1), Cornish (my ), Estonian (mina, ma), Irish (mé ),
Ladin (Nones) 2(mi), Luwian, Turkey (amu, mu), Manx (mee), Old Irish (mé ),
Picard, Belgium (mi, fi ), Proto-Celtic (*moi ), Scottish Gaelic ( mi ), Venetian (mi),
Welsh (mi, fi ). These languages are using pronouns identical to the name of the first
human being “man”, who had been identified as the first man “Mannus” - Tuisco's
child by Tacitus (98AD). The Mannus-layer is the oldest of three layers. The man-
layer may represent either an androgynous or a male (?) symbolism.

Male
I, Yod

Androgynous
IeU / IaU / IoU

Substrate layer
Man - Mannus

Fig. 1: Etymological layers for the Indo-European Pronouns

1 For pronouns, the first one given is for the one doing the action (eg: dji magne = I eat), the second, for the one target
of the action (eg: avou mi = with me).
2 Die bündnerromanischen Idiome im Vergleich
An intermediate androgynous layer ieu, iau respectively iou
The substrate may have been covered in some areas by pronouns ieu, iau respectively
iou and their derivatives, including abbreviations. In Europe some dialects and
languages in the remote mountainous areas still conserve the original form of the
European Ego-pronoun in the threefold vowel-combinations ieu, iau respectively iou,
which as IU-Symbols refer to the androgynous core in the series IU-piter, Dieu, Diu,
Diou, Dio, Dios, Dievas, IHVH, etcetera. In a singular case (the Sardinian dialect
Campidanese) the Ego-pronoun dèu is identical to the divine name Deu.
For example the inhabitants of the small village Villar-St-Pancrace in the West Alpes
between Grenoble and Torino near Briançon are using a strange Ego-pronoun iòu më,
respectively m’ iòu 3. Simultaneously they are using a Creator God's name Diòu4.
Please note the remarkable inclusion of the Ego-pronoun iòu inside the Creator
God's name Diòu. The local dialect of the 1500 villagers, who name themselves
Viarans or Vialan, however cannot be considered as an etymological island and must
be seen as a special varaint of the Occitan, French or just any other Indo-European
language.
In fact Italian and Spanish languages apply the same rules between the Ego-pronouns
and the according divine names, e.g. in Italian Dio = „D“ + „io“, respectively in
Spanish: Dios = „D“ + „yo“ + „s“, in which we will need a trailing character “s”. In
Sicilian the Ego-pronoun „iu“ has been included in the divine name „Diu“.

The top layer Yod for the Indo-European Pronouns

As a third evolutionary step the first character Yod of the IU-Symbols has been
chosen to represent the Ego-pronoun, resulting in (e.g.) the old-German Ego-pronoun
Ih and English Ego-Pronoun I (Yod). According to the same formula the old-German
(Ih) and the English Ego-Pronoun (I) refer to the deity Dis-pater, who around 50 BC
had been identified as the Celtic creator-God by Julius Caesar. In later years the
divine name Dis has been replaced by God (Yod).
Mixed formulas may have been applied to correlate the divine name with the
pronouns, e.g. in Walloon , Belgium, in which the divine name Diu may be related to
the pronoun dji and the ancient pronoun mi 5 corresponds to the substrate man-layer.
The Yod-layer, which represents a male symbolism, may have been introduced to
replace the androgynous intermediate IeU-layer.

3Patois of Villar-St-Pancrace : Personal pronouns: Cas sujet Cas régime atone tonique direct indirect
Sg. 1°p a (l’) iòu më, m’ iòu 2°p tü, t’ të, t’ tü 3°p M u(l), al ei(l) së lu ei F eilo la eilo N o, ul, la - lu - Pl. 1°p nû* nû*
2°p òû* vû* vû* 3°p M î(z) së lû* iè F eilâ (eilaz) lâ* eilâ
4 See the dialect's lexicon : Lexique de mots en patois
5 For pronouns, the first one given is for the one doing the action (eg: dji magne = I eat), the second, for the one target
of the action (eg: avou mi = with me).
Conclusion
Three layers of successive pronouns (Man-Ieu-I,Yod) may be identified in IE-
languages, which all symbolize the creation legend of a first human being.
The Ieu- and Yod-layers may probably have been influenced by the Hebrew religion
at Abraham's contact to the Indo-European migrations. The divine name IHVH
corresponds to the Ieu-core in the second layer of the pronoun's evolution. The Yod-
layer probably corresponds to the first character of the divine name IHVH,
respectively IU-piter, etc.
The pronouns' evolution does not correspond to the evolution of the divine names,
which causes irregularities in the relations between Ego-pronouns and divine names.
See the appended table to check these irregularities.

Details have been documented in the overviews:

• Die Hieroglyphen des Ichs (D) and
• The Hieroglyphs in the Ego-Pronoun (E)
Appendix: Swadesh lists for Language families and Branches

• Swadesh -Lists to derive the Ego-Pronouns (Status of evaluation 23.11.2010):

Afro-Asiatic – Algonquian – Altaic – Araucanian – Austro-Asiatic – Australian –
Austronesian – Baltic-Finnic – Celtic – Dené-Yeniseian – Dravidian – Finno-Ugric –
Germanic – Hokan – Iberian – Italian – Indo-Iranian – Indo-Iranian (extended) – Mayan –
Muskogean – Niger-Congo – Oto-Manguean – Mayan – Paleosiberian – Penutian –
Romance – Sino-Tibetan – Slavic – Siouan – Tai-Kadai – Tibeto-Burman – Tupi-Guarani –
Turkic – Uto-Aztecan

• Source for the derivation of the divine names: Lesarten des Wortes Gott in anderen Sprachen

Family Language God Ego-Pronoun 2nd Person (Du) 0

Indo- Hindi/Urdu म; (maĩ) 1
Iranian
languages
Celtic Breton Doue me te 1
Celtic Cornish my ty 1
Estonian Jummal, Jumal mina, ma sina, sa 1
Finnish Jumahlto minä sinä 1
jumala
Celtic Irish Dia, dhia mé tú 1
Indo- Kurdish mɪn 1
Iranian
languages
Ladin (Nones) 6 mi 1
Luwian, Turkey Tiwat (a)mu tī 1
(God of the sun)
Celtic Manx Jee mee oo 1
Celtic Old Irish mé tú 1
Indo- Persian ‫ ( ﻣَﻦ‬man ) 1
Iranian
languages
Picard, Belgium Diu mi, fi ti 1
Celtic Proto-Celtic *moi *tū 1
Romani , Europe Devel, Duvvel , Me (I), Mandi 1
Devlesa, Dev (I, me), Man (I,
me)
Celtic Scottish Gaelic Dia , God mi thu 1
Indo- Tajik ман (“Man”) 1
Iranian

6 Die bündnerromanischen Idiome im Vergleich

languages
Italian Venetian Dio mi ti 1
Celtic Welsh Duw mi, fi ti 1
Béarnais Diu (diw) 2

Iberian Catalan Déu jo tu 2

Corsican Dio 2
Germanic English God I Thou (Singular) 2
(Celtic) Dis-Pater7
French Dieu je tu, vous (formal) 2
Romance Friulan Diu, Idiu jo tu 2
Gaelic Dia 2
Iberian Galician Deus eu ti 2
Gallisch Dispater 2
Germanic German Gott ich du 2
Old-German Dis-Pater Ih Thu
Germanisch Tiwaz Ih Thu 2
(ON Tyr,
OHG Ziu)
Gothic Lat. Deews 2

Greek θεός (theos) εγώ 2

Hittite Sius Uga, ūk zīk 2
Italian Dio, Iddio Io tu 2
Germanic Kölsch Jott ish Do (unfamiliar), 2
Dis-pater De (respectful),
Ühr (formal)
Latgalian Diws Es 2
Iberian Latin Deus ego tu 2
Latvian (Lettish) Dievs, Deews es tu; jūs 2
Romance Lengadocian Occitan Dieu , Diu, Deu Ieu , iu tu 2
8
Lithuanian Diews (Diewas, aš 2
(Samogit) Dievas )
Slavic Macedonian Dumnedelu, cp. јас ти 2
Dumnelau
Italian Maceratese io tu 2
Romansh Münstertalisch (Jauer) Deis Jau 2
Italian Neapolitan Dio je tu 2

7 Documented in Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar

8 Source: Swadesh list for English, Lithuanian, Dingwa, Sambahsa, Prussian
 Neapolitan Irpinian eje to 2
Germanic Norwegian (bokmål) jeg du 2
Romance Occitan Dieu ieu, jo tu 2
Old French Deo 2
9
Romance Patois of Villar-St- Diòu iòu më, m’ iòu tü, t’ të, t’ tü 2
Pancrace (Alpes)
PIE Djḗus Patḗr egō 2
Piedmontese Iddiou 2
Romance Portuguese Deus eu tu, você 2
Provencal Dieu ieu 2
Romance Romanian Zeu eu tu 2
Romansh Duninezeu, cp.
Dumnedelu
Romance Romansh Dieu jau 10 ti 2
Grischun
Sanskrit Dyaus/Dyaus Pita अहम (ahám) त म (tvám) 2

Sardinian Deus Eo Tue 2

Sardinian Deu dèu tui (familiar) 2
(Campidanese)
Sardinian (Logudorese Deus deo tue = you 2
) Zessu 11 (singular,
familiar)
Italian Sicilian Diu iu tu 2
Iberian Spanish Dios yo tú 2
Romansh Surmeirisch Deus ja 2
(Surmiran)
Romansh Surselvisch Deus jeu 2
(Sursilvan)
Romansh Sutselvisch Ggf. Jupiter bzw. jou 2
(Sutsilvan) *IOU-piter
Unter Engadin Deis Eu, jau (jo) 2
Romansh Unterengadin (Ort: Deus oder Dios (?) jo 2
Zernez )

Romansh Unterengadinisch Deus eu 2

(Vallader)
Romansh Upper Engadine Dieu eau 2
(Puter)

9 Patois of Villar-St-Pancrace : Personal pronouns: Cas sujet Cas régime atone tonique direct indirect
Sg. 1°p a (l’) iòu më, m’ iòu 2°p tü, t’ të, t’ tü 3°p M u(l), al ei(l) së lu ei F eilo la eilo N o, ul, la - lu - Pl. 1°p nû* nû*
2°p òû* vû* vû* 3°p M î(z) së lû* iè F eilâ (eilaz) lâ* eilâ
10 „Jauer“ in Münstertaland in Zernez im Unterengadin (for «jo»)
11 Translated as “My God”
 Vaudois Diou 2
Walloon , Belgium Diu dji; mi 12 vos 2
Germanic Afrikaans God ek jy (informal), u 3
(formal)
Albanian Zot 3
Baltisch Dievas 3
Slavic Belarusian БОГ я ты 3
Slavic Bosnian ja ti 3
Slavic Bulgarian Бог (Bog) аз ти 3
Slavic Croatian Bog ja ti 3
Slavic Czech Bůh já ty 3
Germanic Danish Gud jeg du, De (formal) 3
Germanic Deutsch Gott Ich Du 3
Dis-Pater
Germanic Dutch God ik jij, je (informal), 3
Dis-Pater u (formal), gij
(very formal)
Germanic Faroese Gud eg, jeg tú 3
(Suðuroy)
Germanic Frisian God ik do (dû), jo 3
Dis-Pater
Germanic Icelandic guð ég þú 3
Slavic Polish Bog ja ty 3
Prussian as 3
Slavic Russian Бог я (ya) ты 3
Slavic Serbian Cyrillic Бог (bog) ја (ja) ти (ti ) 3
Slavic Slovak Boh ja ty 3
Slavic Slovene Bog jaz ti 3
Germanic Swedish Gud jag du 3
Slavic Ukrainian Bog я ти 3
Armenisch Astwatz jes du 4
Basque Jainkoak 4
Jaungoico-ac
Jin-couac
Batua (unified Jinko13 (?) ni hi, zu 4
Basque)
Livonian Jumahlto 4
Norwegian Lapp Ibmell, cp. Jupmel 4
12 For pronouns, the first one given is for the one doing the action (eg: dji magne = I eat), the second, for the one target
of the action (eg: avou mi = with me).
13 OED finds an etymology from Basque Jainko ("God") through Gascon possible but not proven.
 Turkish Tanrı, Allah 5
Iberian Aragonese yo tu 6
Iberian Asturian yo tu 6
Romance Gascon Occitan jo tu 6
Romance Interlingua io tu 6
Italian Irpinian "Vallatese" eje to 6
Ladin ie 6
(Gherdëina)
Germanic Limburgs ich doe (informal), 6
geer (formal)
Germanic Low Saxon ik du 6
Germanic Luxembourgish ech du 6
Slavic Old Church Slavonic азъ тꙑ 6
Italian Ticinese Lombard a ta 6