japan/how to say "I".

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. 私「わたし」”watashi”. (formal, female japanese)
• 02. 私「わたくし」”watakushi”. (formal)
• 03. 僕「ぼく」”boku”. (male japanese, childs japanese)
• 04. 俺「おれ」”ore”. (male japanese, from boss or elder)
• 05. 拙者「せっしゃ」”sesha”. (samurai)
• 06. わたれ “wataru”. (not sure about this one, may have it wrong, childs japanese)
• 07. 自分「じぶん」”jibun”. (one’s self, myself, in person)
• 08. うち “uchi”. (one’s self, formal)
• 09. 自身「じしん」”jishin”. (ones, formal)
• 10. 自ら「みずから」”mizukara”. (one’s self, in person)
• 11. 自我「じが」”jiga”. (one’s self)

I’m convinced there are a lot more out there, with regional dialects and so on.