ich

See also: Ich, ICH, ích, ịch, -ich, and -ich-

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English ich, from Old English iċ, iċċ (“I”, pronoun), from Proto-Germanic *ik, *ek (“I”, pronoun), from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂ (“I”). See also ch-, I. False cognate to Finnish itse (“self”) (from Proto-Uralic *iće).

Alternative forms

• Iche
• che
• 'ch-
• ch-

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /itʃ/, /ɪtʃ/
• Homophones: each, itch

Pronoun

ich

1. (personal, obsolete) I.
   • 1529, John Skelton, Elynour Rummyng:

     "Behold," she sayd, "and se How bright I am of ble! Ich am not cast away, That can my husband say, [...]"

   • 1561, John Awdelay, The fraternitye of vacabondes:

     My maysters, ich am an old man, and halfe blinde, […]

   • 1568, Thomas Howell, Arbor of Amitie:

     With cap and knee, ich will serve thee, what should ich more declare.

   • 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure:

     Kissyng and lying ich see is all one:
     And chave no mony, chul tell true therfore.

   • 1645, Thomas Davies, The Somersetshire Man's Complaint:

     Dost thinke 'chill labor to be poore, No no, ich haue a-doe..Ich will a plundering too.

   • 1706, Edward Phillips, The New World of English Words:

     Ich, a Word us'd for I in the Western Parts of England.

Usage notes

Ich was the form of I found in the dialects of the West Country, West Midlands, and Kent. It began to disappear from written English with the onset of the Chancery Standard in the 15th century, yet continued to see limited use through the middle of the 19th century.

The Northern dialectal form, ik (which derives from the same Old English root), likewise disappeared from writing with the onset of the Chancery Standard in the 15th century.

Derived terms

• nich

See also

• chinny reckon

Etymology 2

Clipping of ichthyophthiriasis.

Alternative forms

• ick

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪk/

Noun

ich (uncountable)

1. (ichthyology) Ichthyophthiriasis, a parasitic infection of freshwater fish caused by the ciliate Ichthyophthirius.
   • 1996, Edward J. Noga, Fish Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment, Iowa State University Press (2000), →ISBN, page 95:

     Ich is one of the most common diseases of freshwater fish.

Derived terms

• marine ich

Anagrams

• CHI, CIH, Ch'i, Chi, Chi., HCI, chi, hic

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Alemannic German

Alternative forms

• i
• ig (Bern)

Etymology

From Middle High German ich.

Pronunciation

• (Zurich) IPA^(key): /ix/, /i/ (unstressed), IPA^(key): [ɪːx] (stressed)

Pronoun

ich

1. I

Declension

Alemannic German personal pronouns

		nominative	accusative	dative	possessive
1st person singular		ich, i	mich, mi	mir, mer	miin
2nd person singular	familiar	du	dich	dir	diin
	polite	Si		Ine, Ene	Ire
3rd person singular	m	er	in	im	siin
	f	si		ire
	n	es		im	siin
1st person plural		mir	öis		öise
2nd person plural		ir	öi		öie
3rd person plural		si		ine, ene	ire

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Central Franconian

Alternative forms

• eich (Moselle Franconian, stressed)
• ech (some dialects of Ripuarian; Moselle Franconian, unstressed, enclitic)

Etymology

From Middle High German ich, from Old High German ih, from Proto-Germanic *ek, *ik, from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂. The expected form is ech; the variant ich is from a form *īh with expressive lengthening (compare the corresponding diphthong in Moselle Franconian).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /iɕ/, [iɕ]
  • IPA^(key): [eɕ] → [əɕ] → [ɕ] (unstressed; enclitic before a consonant)
  • IPA^(key): [ij] (enclitic before a vowel)
• The enclitic pronunciation is used after verbs and conjunctions (unless the pronoun is stressed).

Pronoun

ich

1. (some dialects of Ripuarian, including Kölsch) I; nominative of the first-person singular personal pronoun

   Dat senn ich op däm Fotto.

   That’s I (or: me) in this photo.

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Crimean Gothic

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *ik, from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂.

Pronoun

ich

1. I
   • 1562, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq:

     Ich malthata. Ego dico.

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German

Etymology

From Middle High German ich, from Old High German ih, from Proto-Germanic *ek, *ik, from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪç/

• audio

  (file)

• Audio (Austria)

  (file)

Pronoun

ich

1. I

Inflection

German personal pronouns

		nominative	accusative	genitive	dative	possessive
1st person singular		ich	mich	meiner († mein)	mir	mein
2nd person singular (familiar)1		du	dich	deiner († dein)	dir	dein
3rd person singular	m	er	ihn	seiner († sein)	ihm	sein
	f	sie		ihrer	ihr
	n	es		seiner († sein)	ihm	sein
1st person plural		wir	uns	unser	uns	unser
2nd person plural (familiar)1		ihr	euch	euer	euch	euer
3rd person plural		sie		ihrer	ihnen	ihr
polite address	naturally: 2nd person sg. or pl.; grammatically: 3rd person pl.	Sie		Ihrer	Ihnen	Ihr

¹Often capitalized, especially in letters

In contemporary German, the genitive forms of personal pronouns are restricted to formal style and are unfrequent even there. They may be used

• for the genitive object still found in a handful of verbs: Er erbarmte sich meiner. – "He had mercy on me". (Colloquially one would either use the dative case, or a prepositional object, or replace the verb with another.)
• after the preposition statt ("instead of, in place of"): Er kam statt meiner in die Mannschaft. – "He joined the team in my place." This sounds antiquated, and an meiner Statt or an meiner Stelle is preferable (in which case meiner is not a genitive, but a form of the possessive determiner mein).

Further reading

• ich in Duden online

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Hunsrik

Etymology

From Middle High German ich, from Old High German ih, from Proto-Germanic *ek, *ik, from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /iç/

Pronoun

ich

1. I

   Ich sin en Fraa.

   I am a woman.

Inflection

Hunsrik personal pronouns

	nominative		accusative		dative
	Proclitic	Enclitic	str.	unstr.	str.	unstr.
1st person singular	ich	-ich	mich		meer	mer
2nd person singular (informal)	du	-du, -de	dich		deer	der
3rd person singular (m)	er, där	-er	ihn	en	ihm	em
3rd person singular (f)	sie, die	-se	sie / ihns	se	eer	re
3rd person singular (n)	es, das	's	es		ihm	em
1st person plural	meer	mer	uns		uns
2nd person plural	deer	der	eich		eich
3rd person plural	sie, die	-se	sie	se	denne

Further reading

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

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Limburgish

Alternative forms

• iech
• ik

Etymology

From Old High German ih, from Proto-Germanic *ek, *ik.

Pronunciation

• (most dialects) IPA^(key): [ɪx]
• (Maastricht) IPA^(key): [ix]

Pronoun

ich (personal)

1. I

Inflection

	Singular	Dual	Plural
nominative	ich, 'ch	weet	weer, v'r
genitive	miener, miens	ózzer	ózzer
locative	miches	ózzes	ózzes
dative	mir	ós	ós
accusative	mich	ós	ós

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Luo

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪ̀c/

Noun

ich

1. stomach

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Middle English

Etymology

From Old English iċ (“I”, pronoun), from Proto-Germanic *ek (“I”, pronoun), from Proto-Indo-European *egom (“I”), *éǵh₂.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /itʃ/

Pronoun

ich

1. Alternative form of I

Usage notes

• Ich is the Southern and sometimes Midland form of I in Middle English, which corresponds to ik of the Northern dialect.

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Middle High German

Etymology

From Old High German ih, from Proto-Germanic *ek, *ik.

Pronoun

ich

1. (personal) I

Declension

Declension of ich

Case \ Number	singular	plural
nominative	ich	wir
accusative	mich	unsich, uns
genitive	mîn	unser
dative	mir	uns

Descendants

• Bavarian: i, I
• Central Franconian: ich
• German: ich
• → Limburgish: ich
• Luxembourgish: ech
• Vilamovian: ych
• Yiddish: איך‎ (ikh)

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Pennsylvania German

Etymology

From Old High German ih. Compare German ich, Dutch ik, English I, Old Norse ek.

Pronoun

ich

1. I

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Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ix/

• Audio

  (file)

Pronoun

ich

1. possessive pronoun for oni or one, namely their or theirs; indeclinable.

Pronoun

ich

1. genitive of oni; them
2. genitive of one; them
3. personal masculine accusative of oni; them

See also

• nich

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Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈix/

Pronoun

ich

(The genitive plural and accusative plural of on (he), ona (she), and one (it).)

1. (possessive) their, theirs
2. them

Further reading

• ich in Slovak dictionaries at korpus.sk

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Yola

Etymology

From Middle English ich, from Old English iċ (“I”, pronoun), from Proto-Germanic *ek (“I”, pronoun), from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂ (“I”). Compare obsolete English ich.

Pronoun

ich

1. I (first person singular pronoun)

See also

• 'ch-

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Yucatec Maya

Noun

ich (plural ichoʼob)

1. (anatomy) eye
2. face
3. fruit