い

Etymology 1
.

Etymology 2
Corruption of emphatic particle or exclamatory particle.

Etymology 3
From. Possibly cognate with 🇨🇬 nominal particle.

Used in 🇨🇬, still found in use in Chinese works annotated for Japanese readers of Early Middle Japanese in the early Heian period, then becoming more limited and appearing only in specialized Buddhist texts. Fallen into disuse by the late Heian period from the time of so-called “cloistered rule”.

Obsolete. Not used in modern Japanese.

Particle

 * 1)  emphatic subject marker, added to nouns and verb stems
 * 2) * 797: Shoku Nihongi (edict 6)
 * 3) * 797: Shoku Nihongi (edict 12)
 * 4) * 797: Shoku Nihongi (edict 34)
 * 5)  emphatic phrase-final particle, emphasizing preceding phrase
 * 1) * 797: Shoku Nihongi (edict 6)
 * 2) * 797: Shoku Nihongi (edict 12)
 * 3) * 797: Shoku Nihongi (edict 34)
 * 4)  emphatic phrase-final particle, emphasizing preceding phrase
 * 1) * 797: Shoku Nihongi (edict 34)
 * 2)  emphatic phrase-final particle, emphasizing preceding phrase
 * 1)  emphatic phrase-final particle, emphasizing preceding phrase

Etymology 3
An extension of use of the -i ending on adjectives.

Suffix

 * : -ic; -al

Etymology 5
From various Japonic origins.