Abstract
First-and second-person markers are typically conservative, rarely borrowed, and generally develop from free pronouns or demonstratives. In this paper I document an exceptional case in Nyungic Pama-Nyungan (Australia) where a first-person bound pronoun originates not from a free pronominal or demonstrative source but from the ventive morpheme *-rni, reconstructible to proto-Nyungic with the meaning 'towards the speaker'. I argue that pronominal =rni emerged via reanalysis of the ventive specifically in imperative clauses with a restricted set of event type. Pre-existing syncretisms in the bound pronoun paradigms further drove its generalisation, linking together functions that extended beyond the original bridging context. This pathway links spatial deixis directly to person marking, bypassing the usual free pronominal or demonstrative source. While person–deixis connections are well-known conceptually, these diachronic findings demonstrate a rare trajectory through which deictic directionals can enter person paradigms under specific morphological and pragmatic conditions. Abstract. First-and second-person markers are typically conservative, rarely borrowed, and generally develop from free pronouns or demonstratives. In this paper I document an exceptional case in Nyungic Pama-Nyungan (Australia) where a first-person bound pronoun originates not from a free pronominal or demonstrative source but from the ventive morpheme *-rni, reconstructible to proto-Nyungic with the meaning 'towards the speaker'. I argue that pronominal =rni emerged via reanalysis of the ventive specifically in imperative clauses with a restricted set of event type. Pre-existing syncretisms in the bound pronoun paradigms further drove its generalisation, linking together functions that extended beyond the original bridging context. This pathway links spatial deixis directly to person marking, bypassing the usual free pronominal or demonstrative source. While person–deixis connections are well-known conceptually, these diachronic findings demonstrate a rare trajectory through which deictic directionals can enter person paradigms under specific morphological and pragmatic conditions.