The Interpretation of Ancient Indo-European Noun Declensions

The features of the ancient Indo-European noun declensions, the role of consonantal nominal declensions as one of the formal criteria to single out animate/active substantives are discussed in this paper. The ancient Indo-European noun declension is, probably, connected with consonantal stem-building. Stem-building markers are assumed to refer to the class and active type relics preserved in the noun declension paradigm.