Starting from a morphosyntactic puzzle of the Eastern Uralic languages
(possessor agreement suffixes functioning as accusative allomorphs on
pronominal objects), we identify a pronoun cycle which leads from
reflexives via intensifiers and via referentially independent intensive
pronouns to neutral pronouns. In Tundra Nenets, we also point out
evidence of three rounds of reflexive renewal, with the three sets of
pronouns frozen at different stages of the cycle. The analysis has
implications for debated issues of language change. We demonstrate that
elements participating in cyclic changes not only suffer feature loss
but also incorporate features. Based on the recurring cycle in Tundra
Nenets, we argue that the cyclicity of linguistic changes implies a
notion of unidirectionality that also leaves room for unpredictable
outcomes.