私 Origin / Etymology?


I'm taking a beginners Japanese course, and I heard that Japanese Kanji
originated from the Chinese writing system, which is the reason for so many
similarities. However, the Japanese Kanji for "I" (私) is very different from
the Chinese character for "I" (我). In fact, in Chinese 私 seems to mean
"private". I would have expected a word so fundamental as 我 to be adopted
along with all the other Chinese words, but it seems like that was not so.

So where did 私 come from? And why was 我 not used instead?




It looks like itrasci has already addressed the question about 我. Here's some
more information about 私.

### Where the reading came from -- Derivation

Although we have the history of how _watakushi_ has been used over the years,
I cannot find anything definitive on where this term came from. The [entry at
Gogen Allguide](http://gogen-allguide.com/wa/watakushi.html) suggests that
there may be some connection between the initial _wa-_ in _watakushi_ and the
_wa_ reading for 我.

(Note that this _wa_ appears to be a native Japanese term -- although modern
Mandarin uses a reading of _wǒ_ , which is pretty close to the Japanese, the
older Chinese reading was something closer to _nga_ , matching the Japanese
_on'yomi_ of _ga_ but not the _kun'yomi_ of _wa_.)

That said, there are no clear etyma (roots) that would fit. Assuming this
initial _wa_ as the first portion, there aren't any likely roots for _takushi_
, or even _taku_ + _shi_ , or _ta_ + _kushi_ , etc. Neither _wata_ nor _kushi_
have anything likely. ("straw" + "comb"? Nope.) Ultimately, the origins for
this term remain a mystery.

**Update**

The reading _watakushi_ seems to predate Genji by at least two and a half
centuries. I was poking around in the
_[Man'yōshū](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB)_ and found
_watakushi_ used as a reading apparently meaning "private, privately owned" in
[poem 1275](http://jti.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/manyoshu/Man7Yos.html#1275).
A modern-Japanese rendering is available [on this
page](http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/kairouwait08/33027689.html).

### How the meaning shifted -- Usage

私 with an _on'yomi_ of _shi_ still appears with a meaning of "private" in
modern Japanese.

The _kun'yomi_ of _watakushi_ used to have this meaning too as the primary
sense. In [The Tale of Genji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji)
dating to the early 1000s, _watakushi_ was used as an antonym of _ohoyake_ --
modern 公【おおやけ】 "public". Some compounds using _watakushi_ still have a meaning
of "private" or "limited", such as 私雨【わたくしあめ】 "a rainfall in a very limited
area", or 私金【わたくしがね】 "personal money", or even 私【わたくし】する "to make something
private that was formerly public, to take something public for personal or
private use".

This sense of "private, not public" developed over time to mean one's own
personal, private affairs or thoughts, and from there, to oneself.
Shogakukan's 国語大辞典 gives a citation for this use from 1632.

The various alternative readings -- _watashi_ , _atashi_ , _atai_ , _wasshi_ ,
etc. -- are all just phonetic variations of the older form _watakushi_ (now
regarded as the hyperpolite version of everyday _watashi_ ).

### How pronouns move around in Japanese

Personal pronouns in Japanese work differently than pronouns in many other
languages. "I" in English can be traced back to an ancient Proto-Indo-European
root with cognates in umpteen other languages, and pretty much all of them
share a similar meaning of "I" (first-person pronoun). Even Chinese's _wǒ_ has
been incredibly stable through the millenia, tracing back at least 2,500 years
and possibly further back.

In Japanese, however, pronouns move and change in a much more fluid fashion.
Historically, a term that may have started out as a humble indirect reference,
such as 僕【ぼく】 (apparently originally meaning "servant", much like the super-
polite English expression "[I am] your servant, madam"), degrades in meaning
to become a very everyday, informal, and even rude term when used in the wrong
contexts. 俺【おれ】 is now a term for "I" that is almost exclusively male, and is
considered very informal and rude, but before the Edo period, it was broadly
used by both genders regardless of social class or context.

There has been a lot of research into politeness in Japanese, and how
indirection results in changes in pronoun usage over time. It's a very deep
subject, and there's tons to read if you're interested. [Here are some
relevant
links](https://www.google.com/search?q=japanese+pronouns+indirection+diachronic)
for starters.




It looks like itrasci has already addressed the question about 我. Here's some
more information about 私.

### Where the reading came from -- Derivation

Although we have the history of how _watakushi_ has been used over the years,
I cannot find anything definitive on where this term came from. The [entry at
Gogen Allguide](http://gogen-allguide.com/wa/watakushi.html) suggests that
there may be some connection between the initial _wa-_ in _watakushi_ and the
_wa_ reading for 我.

(Note that this _wa_ appears to be a native Japanese term -- although modern
Mandarin uses a reading of _wǒ_ , which is pretty close to the Japanese, the
older Chinese reading was something closer to _nga_ , matching the Japanese
_on'yomi_ of _ga_ but not the _kun'yomi_ of _wa_.)

That said, there are no clear etyma (roots) that would fit. Assuming this
initial _wa_ as the first portion, there aren't any likely roots for _takushi_
, or even _taku_ + _shi_ , or _ta_ + _kushi_ , etc. Neither _wata_ nor _kushi_
have anything likely. ("straw" + "comb"? Nope.) Ultimately, the origins for
this term remain a mystery.

**Update**

The reading _watakushi_ seems to predate Genji by at least two and a half
centuries. I was poking around in the
_[Man'yōshū](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB)_ and found
_watakushi_ used as a reading apparently meaning "private, privately owned" in
[poem 1275](http://jti.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/manyoshu/Man7Yos.html#1275).
A modern-Japanese rendering is available [on this
page](http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/kairouwait08/33027689.html).

### How the meaning shifted -- Usage

私 with an _on'yomi_ of _shi_ still appears with a meaning of "private" in
modern Japanese.

The _kun'yomi_ of _watakushi_ used to have this meaning too as the primary
sense. In [The Tale of Genji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji)
dating to the early 1000s, _watakushi_ was used as an antonym of _ohoyake_ --
modern 公【おおやけ】 "public". Some compounds using _watakushi_ still have a meaning
of "private" or "limited", such as 私雨【わたくしあめ】 "a rainfall in a very limited
area", or 私金【わたくしがね】 "personal money", or even 私【わたくし】する "to make something
private that was formerly public, to take something public for personal or
private use".

This sense of "private, not public" developed over time to mean one's own
personal, private affairs or thoughts, and from there, to oneself.
Shogakukan's 国語大辞典 gives a citation for this use from 1632.

The various alternative readings -- _watashi_ , _atashi_ , _atai_ , _wasshi_ ,
etc. -- are all just phonetic variations of the older form _watakushi_ (now
regarded as the hyperpolite version of everyday _watashi_ ).

### How pronouns move around in Japanese

Personal pronouns in Japanese work differently than pronouns in many other
languages. "I" in English can be traced back to an ancient Proto-Indo-European
root with cognates in umpteen other languages, and pretty much all of them
share a similar meaning of "I" (first-person pronoun). Even Chinese's _wǒ_ has
been incredibly stable through the millenia, tracing back at least 2,500 years
and possibly further back.

In Japanese, however, pronouns move and change in a much more fluid fashion.
Historically, a term that may have started out as a humble indirect reference,
such as 僕【ぼく】 (apparently originally meaning "servant", much like the super-
polite English expression "[I am] your servant, madam"), degrades in meaning
to become a very everyday, informal, and even rude term when used in the wrong
contexts. 俺【おれ】 is now a term for "I" that is almost exclusively male, and is
considered very informal and rude, but before the Edo period, it was broadly
used by both genders regardless of social class or context.

There has been a lot of research into politeness in Japanese, and how
indirection results in changes in pronoun usage over time. It's a very deep
subject, and there's tons to read if you're interested. [Here are some
relevant
links](https://www.google.com/search?q=japanese+pronouns+indirection+diachronic)
for starters.

