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From Middle Korean이〮(-í, subject marker), from Old Korean是, 利(*-i, subject marker). Old Korean sources also use 亦(*-yek?) and 弋只(*-ik) as a subject marker. It is possible that these are the more conservative forms, and that there was a shift from 亦(*-yek?) > 弋只(*-ik) > 是(*-i). However, others have considered 弋只(*-ik)) to be a suffixed form of -i. The forms with *-k are attested later than simple *-i.
For nouns ending in consonants, a particle marking it as the grammatical complement of the verbal stems 되다 (doeda, “to become”) and 아니다 (anida, “to not be”).
Synonyms:가(-ga, for nouns ending in vowels), 으로(-euro, for the verb 되다(doeda))
Korean commonly uses so-called "double subject" constructions, in which a subject-verb or subject-adjective combination is used as the predicate of another subject so that the subject marker appears twice in a single sentence. See the examples below:
However, it cannot be omitted when the subject is a new topic being introduced into the conversation, or when the subject is being specified to the exclusion of others. The particle is thus obligatory in the sentence below, where 집(jip, “home”) is to the exclusion of other things.
Historically, 이 was the only subject-marking particle in the Korean language, and was used for nouns ending in vowels as well. This is true for most Early Modern Korean texts up to the late nineteenth century. In the peripheral Yukjin dialect spoken in far northeastern Korea and neighboring parts of China, 이 remains the only nominative particle used. It is the only contemporary dialect to preserve such an archaism.
From Middle Korean이(i), of variable pitch depending on the stem being attached to. Lee Ki-Moon and S. Roberts Ramsey notes that it is "probably from the same etymological source" as the bound noun for "person".
The suffix is retained before most particles, but lost before the vocative particle 아(-a):
서민이 > 서민아!
Seomin-i > seomin-a!
Seomin > Hey, Seomin!
멍멍이 > 멍멍아!
Meongmeong-i > meongmeong-a!
doggy > Hey, doggy!
For nouns historically formed by the suffix but where the original form has fallen out of widespread use, vocative behavior varies. In general, words where the suffixed form was already dominant in Middle Korean retain the suffix because they are no longer perceived as being multimorphemic, but words where the non-suffixed form was common into Early Modern Korean drop the suffix.
기러기 > 기럭아!(suffix lost in vocative)
Gireogi > gireog-a!
wild goose > Hey, wild goose!
파리 > 파리야!(suffix retained in vocative)
Pari > pari-ya!
fly (insect) > Hey, fly!
When used with personal names, the suffix connotes that the person is on intimate or familiar terms with the speaker, that they are social equals or inferiors of the speaker, and that the context is not formal. In Korean, referring to a person simply by their given name without a surname or title already implies intimacy, lack of social superiority, and informality. The suffix 이(-i) is thus usually added when using a consonant-final given name in isolation:
박서민이 그랬어.(the speaker and Seomin are not on intimate terms)
Bak Seomin-i geuraesseo.
Park Seomin said that.
서민이가 그랬어.(the speaker and Seomin are on intimate terms)
Seomin-i-ga geuraesseo.
Seomin said that.
The suffix can also be used together with a surname, in which case the association with intimacy or familiarity is weaker and there can be a connotation that the speaker is looking down on the person being referred to.
게(-ge) is the normal adverb-deriving suffix. The 이(-i) forms tend to have a marked or lexicalized meaning.
In Seoul Korean, most adverbs derived by this suffix from adjectives formed with the light verb하다(hada) contract to 히(-hi), rather than *하이:
솔직하(soljikha-, “to be honest”) + 이(-i) → 솔직히(soljikhi, “honestly”)
깔끔하(kkalkkeumha-, “to be neat”) + 이(-i) → 깔끔히(kkalkkeumhi, “neatly”)
However, some 하다 adjectives lose the consonant ㅎ(h) entirely, taking 이(-i) instead. In the prescriptive standard of Seoul Korean, there are two main exceptions:
If the non-하다 element ends in ㅅ(s), 이 is always used.
깨끗하(kkaekkeutha-, “to be clean”) + 이(-i) → 깨끗이(kkaekkeusi, “cleanly”)
If the non-하다 element ends in ㄱ(g), 이 is often used.
굵직하(gukjikha-, “to be stout”) + 이(-i) → 굵직이(gukjigi, “stoutly”)
In practice, many Seoul speakers will uniformly use 히 for all adverbs where the corresponding 하다 adjective remains current in the language.
For a few adverbs, the 히 form is prescriptively used despite being derived from non-하다 adjectives. However, most of these words have fallen out of use in spoken Korean. Note also that certain adverbs which originate as contractions of longer adverbs may use 히 even when there is no corresponding 하다 adjective for the contraction, and that some Sino-Korean adverbs with 히 have lost their adjectival counterpart entirely.
None of this is the case in many of the non-standard dialects, such as Gyeongsang where 하이(hai) is permissible.
Etymology 4
Cognate to Standard Seoul Korean 응(eung, “yes, yeah, yep”, informal affirmative interjection). The interjection grammaticalized into a particle.
Jongcheor-a! Jal ga-geurae-i... I abuji-neun amu hal mar-i eopdae-i.
Go on to a good place, Cheol, my son. There’s nothing more I can say.
(This is a quote from the father of Bak Jong-cheol, a university student tortured to death by the junta in 1987, during his son's funeral. It became a slogan of the June Struggle that toppled the regime that year. The translation is from a 2018 article in The Korea Herald.)
^ Nam Pung-hyun (2012) “Old Korean”, in Nicolas Tranter, editor, The Languages of Japan and Korea, Routledge, →ISBN, pages 41–72
^ Choe Seonggyu (2016) 차자표기 자료의 격조사 연구―삼국시대부터 고려시대까지를 중심으로— [chajapyogi jaryoui gyeokjosa yeon'gu―samguksidaebuteo goryeosidaekkajireul jungsimeuro-, Study of case markers in Sinographic sources: from the Three Kingdoms to the Goryeo Period] (in Korean), Seoul National University (PhD), pages 101—120
↑ 3.03.1John Whitman, Yuko Yanagida (2012) “A Korean Grammatical Borrowing in Early Middle Japanese Kunten texts and its Relation to the Syntactic Alignment of Earlier Japanese and Korean”, in Japanese and Korean Linguistics, volume 21, pages 121—135
^ Lee, Ki-Moon, Ramsey, S. Robert (2011) A History of the Korean Language, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 173—174
^ 김태인 [gimtaein] (2015) “서남방언 담화표지 '이' 고찰 [seonambang'eon damhwapyoji i gochal, A study of the discourse marker -i in Southwestern Korean]”, in Bang'eonhak, volume 21, pages 9—38