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mama

ahaṃ

1st dat sg of ahaṃ (pron); 1st gen sg of ahaṃ (pron)

1. ahaṃ (pron): I
2. mama (pron): to me; for me
3. mama (pron): my; mine; of me

Built from

• m- — root · me, self
  The pronominal root *me- from Proto-Indo-European *me-. Cognates: Latin mē, Greek με, English me, German mich. The -a ending is an oblique marker (genitive/dative singular).
• -ama — ending · oblique singular
  This inflectional ending marks the dative and genitive cases in the 1st person singular, allowing mama to function both as 'to/for me' and as the possessive 'my/mine' in attributive position.

Etymology. Pali mama is the oblique stem of the 1st person pronoun ahaṃ 'I'. It derives from Proto-Indo-European *me- 'me', which appears in Latin mē, Greek με (me), English me, and Sanskrit mam. The genitive/possessive mama shows the same root in an inflected form, with the -a ending marking the oblique case. Like Latin meus and Greek emos, Pali mama conflates dative ('to/for me') and possessive ('my') functions.

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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