Elkar

[hwhatting]

[I don't know of any real-world examples, but I could imagine pronouns developing out of numbers-- 'I' am 'number one'! If that seems unlikely, there are instances of numbers becoming demonstratives, a development I borrowed for Kebreni.

Well, "1" is, of course, the source of the indefinite article in many I-E languages (and not only - there's a similar development for Turkish "bir" = "1"), and also develops into an indefinite pronoun or part of it (German "einer", English "someone").
It seems also to happen the other way round. It has been argued (don't remember where) that Proto-Indo-European *oi-no- (from which the number "1" in most I-E Languages derives) has been a demonstrative pronoun originally. AFAIK, the Avestan "1" is "aeva-", while the Vedic equivalent of the word, "eva-", is a pronoun (the Vedic / Sanskrit word for "1" is "eka-"; both are derviations from the element *oi- that is also contained in the *oino- mentioned above).
Greetings,
Hans-Werner

[daan]

That is very true, indeed, een/een (dutch), eins/ein (german), un/un (french), uno/uno (spanish), one/an (english) and egy/egy (hungarian) for example.

I wonder why Esperanto is not so logical with personal pronouns. I can't remember the proper ones yet, but imagine you have ke -what, ste -this, ese -that and ki -who, you can't make sti -I and esi -that...

[spanaza]

Since you're talking about the origins of pronouns....
I know there some real wolrd examples of obviate 3rd person pronouns deriving from words meaning "other" or "the other".
Also, listening to people around me gives me the impression modern American English is begining a shift in its pronomial system. I hear people use expressions like "Boy want this?" instead of "You want this" and even adults disregarding case rules. Might just be stupid people, could be a sign of things to come. [/quote]