TYPOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE NOUN DECLENSION IN ARMENIAN

Abstract

This article offers an overview of the typological changes that the Indo-European noun
declension has undergone up to the Modern Armenian period. The individual typological
features have changed at different chronological stages. In this regard the Old Armenian noun
declension with its zero-marking of the nominative singular and at the same time cumulative
case-number exponents typologically represents a transitional stage from the I.-E. flective to
the Middle Armenian (as well as Modern Armenian) agglutinative type of inflection. It is
argued that the typological shift of the nominal declension from cumulative to separative expo-
nence in Middle Armenian was not triggered by the influence from neighbouring languages, as
usually believed, but rather it has been a direct and quite expected consequence of the new
plural markers going back to Old Armenian collective plural suffixes, the latter being inflected
in singular. On the other hand, the very process of the collective plural suffixes developing into
regular plural markers had inner-systemic motivation as well. Specifically, the growing tende-
ncy for the Old Armenian plural marker ք to function also as a purely derivational (word-buil-
ding) suffix inevitably weakened its plural-marking value necessitating a new plural marker.