我
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Revision as of 14:14, 9 July 2021 by Winterdharma (talk | contribs)
Suggested translations: first person pronoun; "self," "soul"
Mandarin: wǒ
Middle Chinese: ŋa
Originally a multipurpose first person pronoun (I, me, my, mine, myself). Plurality (we, us, our) is explicit with the postfix 等, but it can also be implied by context.
In Buddhist translation, 我 became the most common rendering of Skt. atmā/atman P. atta when used in the conceptual sense of "the self" or "individual soul." Translators should pay attention to context to differentiate this usage from ordinary pronouns.