𐰋𐰤

Old Turkic

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Turkic *bẹ (“I”). Cognate with Chuvash эпӗ (ep̬ĕ, “I”), Khalaj mən (“I”), Turkish ben (“I”), Uzbek men (“I”), Bashkir мин (min, “I”), Yakut мин (min, “I”).

Pronoun

𐰋𐰤 (ben)

1. first person singular pronoun
   • 8th century CE, Tonyukuk Inscription, IW7

     𐰋𐰠𐰏𐰾𐰃:𐰲𐰉𐰾𐰃:𐰋𐰤:𐰜:𐰼𐱅𐰢

     bilgesi:čabïšï:ben:ök:ertim

     I, myself, was his advisor and commander.

Suffix

𐰋𐰤 (ben)

1. alternative spelling of 𐰢𐰤 (men)

Alternative forms

• 𐰢𐰤 (men) (nasalized)
• 𐰌𐰥 (ben) (Yenisei Kyrgyz)

See also

Old Turkic personal pronouns

		singular	plural
1st person		𐰋𐰤 (ben), 𐰢𐰤 (men)	𐰋𐰃𐰕 (biz)
2nd person		𐰾𐰤 (sen)	𐰾𐰃𐰕 (siz)
3rd person		𐰆𐰞 (ol)

References

• Tekin, Talât (1968) “bän”, in A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic (Uralic and Altaic Series; 69), Bloomington: Indiana University, →ISBN, page 312
• Clauson, Gerard (1972) “ben”, in An Etymological Dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 346
• Starostin, Sergei, Dybo, Anna, Mudrak, Oleg (2003) “*bẹ-”, in Etymological dictionary of the Altaic languages (Handbuch der Orientalistik; VIII.8)‎^[1], Leiden, New York, Köln: E.J. Brill