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In English, how many ways can we refer to ourselves?
I, my, me, one’s self, in person & one’s.
So in all that’s six ways. By far and wide “I” would be the most used. However some languages have a multitude of ways to refer to one’s self, and Japanese is by far the most confusing! Japanese has well over 11 ways of making self references:
- 01. ç§ã€Œã‚ãŸã—〔watashi”. (formal, female japanese)
- 02. ç§ã€Œã‚ãŸãã—〔watakushi”. (formal)
- 03. 僕「ã¼ã〔boku”. (male japanese, childs japanese)
- 04. 俺「ãŠã‚Œã€”ore”. (male japanese, from boss or elder)
- 05. 拙者「ã›ã£ã—ゃ〔sesha”. (samurai)
- 06. ã‚ãŸã‚Œ “wataru”. (not sure about this one, may have it wrong, childs japanese)
- 07. 自分「ã˜ã¶ã‚“〔jibun”. (one’s self, myself, in person)
- 08. ã†ã¡ “uchi”. (one’s self, formal)
- 09. 自身「ã˜ã—ん〔jishin”. (ones, formal)
- 10. 自ら「ã¿ãšã‹ã‚‰ã€”mizukara”. (one’s self, in person)
- 11. 自我「ã˜ãŒã€”jiga”. (one’s self)
I’m convinced there are a lot more out there, with regional dialects and so on.
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