Many of the *rules* of English grammar were artifically imposed on the English language - borrowed from Latin in an attempt to make the language more prestigious and *logical*. I believe the I/me rule came about in this way. Prior to this grammatical borrowing it was widespread and *correct* to say eg "Me and Fred are going out". Then the rule was borrowed from Latin and the upper classes started making the distinction so as to distinguish themselves from the unlearned lower classes who knew nothing of Latin. And because the higher class way of speaking became known as the correct grammar it started to be used (often incorrectly) by the rest of England who wanted to appear educated but didn't really know what the new rule was.

The French don't say "Pierre et je........" but "Pierre et moi......" in the context we are talking about - and their language is more directly related to Latin. I don't know how common the distinction is in other languages.

Bagpuss