我

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.