Meaning
The first-person pronoun — 'I', 'me', and 'my' all at once. Where English changes form ('I' for the subject, 'me' for the object, 'my' for possession), Jamaican uses 'mi' for all three.
Senses
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pronoun 'I' or 'me' — as the subject or object of a sentence.
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Mi deh yah.
I am here.
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Give it to mi.
Give it to me.
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determiner 'My' — marking possession.
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A mi book dat.
That's my book.
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Mi madda soon come.
My mother is coming soon.
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Origin
From English 'me', but broadened to cover subject, object and possessive alike — one of the clearest ways Jamaican grammar differs from English.
How it’s used
Rastafari speakers often replace 'mi' with 'I' or 'I and I', feeling 'mi' makes the self an object. In everyday Jamaican, 'mi' is universal.
Gloss adapted from A Learner's Glossary of Jamaican, Open Grammar Project, licensed under CC BY 4.0. View the source work · CC BY 4.0