Anfangsstem

Anfangsstem is a term used in linguistic morphology to designate the initial stem of a word during a word-formation process. The concept is not standardized, and its exact meaning varies among authors. In some accounts, der Begriff refers to the invariant base of a word across related forms, or to the stem that remains when common inflectional endings are removed. In other analyses, it denotes the form at the earliest stage of derivation, before the attachment of affixes or phonological changes such as vowel alternations. The notion is often employed in historical linguistics to discuss how words are built from a proto-stem or to trace cognate families, and in some theoretical frameworks as a way to separate the core lexical material from morphophonological changes.

Differences between Anfangsstem and other related concepts reflect varying theoretical aims. It is distinct from the common notion of Stamm or Wortstamm in many grammars, which typically denotes the concrete form used to create inflected forms; the Anfangsstem may instead be more abstract, representational, or context-dependent. Because of this variability, the term is sometimes used to describe stages in a derivational sequence or to capture a form used for cross-form comparisons within a given analysis.

See also: Stamm (Linguistik), Lexem, Wortbildung, Morphologie, Historische Linguistik.