Re: Latin 3rd person pronouns [was Re: No pronoun, no article]

RB = Ray Brown
GW = Garth Wallace

RB> I suppose Latin had only fully developed personal pronouns for 1st & 2nd
RB> persons. For
RB> the 3rd person only the reflexive 'se' existed.  The non-reflexive 3rd
RB> person forms were
RB> supplied by a fairly rich set of demonstrative pronouns.

GW> Hm? Where did you get this? I distinctly remember learning masculine,
GW> feminine, and neuter 3rd person pronouns in high school Latin.

You're both right.  The non-reflexive third-person pronouns in
Latin are supplied by the demonstrative pronoun equivalent of
English "that".  This pronoun agreed in gender (and case) with its
antecedent, and therefore had forms for masculine, feminine, and
neuter, which doubled for "he", "she", and "it" even though they
literally meant "that one (masculine)" (is), "that one (feminine)"
(ea), and "that one (neuter)", (id).

-Mark