मैं

Etymology

Inherited from Old Hindi मैं (maiṃ), from Apabhramsa मइं (maĩ), from Prakrit 𑀫𑀏 (mae), from Sanskrit मया (mayā), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *máyaH (the instrumental singular of *aȷ́ʰám (“I”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁móy.^[1][2][3]

Cognate to Punjabi ਮੈਂ (maĩ), Nepali म (ma), Assamese মই (moi), Odia ମୁଁ (mũ) , Sylheti ꠝꠥꠁ (mui), Bengali মুই (mui), Marathi मी (mī), all deriving from oblique forms of the first-person personal pronoun.

Pronunciation

• (Delhi) IPA^(key): /mɛ̃ː/
• (dialectal) (Delhi) IPA^(key): /mə.ĩː/, [mɐ.ĩː]

• Audio:

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Pronoun

मैं • (ma͠i) m or f (Urdu spelling مَیں)

1. I (the first person personal singular pronoun)

   मैं एक आदमी हूँ। ― ma͠i ek ādmī hū̃. ― I am a man.

References

Further reading

• McGregor, Ronald Stuart (1993) “मैं”, in The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, London: Oxford University Press
• Platts, John T. (1884) “मैं”, in A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English, London: W. H. Allen & Co.
• Caturvedi, Mahendra, Bhola Nath Tiwari (1970) “मैं”, in A practical Hindi-English dictionary, Delhi: National Publishing House

Etymology

From Khasa Prakrit [Term?] (compare Prakrit 𑀫𑀏 (mae)), from Sanskrit मया (mayā), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *máyaH (the instrumental singular of *aȷ́ʰám (“I”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁móy.

Pronoun

मैं (ma͠i)

1. I

Alternative forms

• मै (mai)

Etymology

Inherited from Apabhramsa मइं (maĩ), from Prakrit 𑀫𑀏 (mae), from Sanskrit मया (mayā), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *máyaH (the instrumental singular of *aȷ́ʰám (“I”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁móy.

Pronoun

मैं (maiṃ)

1. I
   • c. 1500, Kabir, Assorted Poetry, pad 76, line 3:

     जग मैं देषूँ जग न देषि मोहि

     jaga maiṃ deṣūm̐ jaga na deṣi mohi

     I see the world, [but] the world does not see me.