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").zompist wrote:[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.
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