Epäinflektiivinen

Epäinflektiivinen is a Finnish linguistic term that describes a word that does not undergo inflection. Inflection refers to the modification of a word's form to express grammatical information such as tense, number, case, or gender. Words that are epäinflektiivinen retain their base form regardless of their grammatical function in a sentence.

In Finnish, most words inflect extensively. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and even some adverbs change their endings to agree with other words or to indicate their role in the sentence. However, there are certain classes of words that are considered epäinflektiivinen. These typically include interjections and some loanwords, particularly those that have not been fully assimilated into the Finnish language. For example, interjections like "oi" (oh) or "voi" (oh dear) do not change their form. Similarly, certain foreign words used in Finnish might remain in their original, uninflected form.

The concept of epäinflektiivinen is important for understanding the grammatical structure of Finnish. While the language is known for its rich inflectional system, recognizing the exceptions helps in accurately analyzing sentence construction and word usage. The presence of epäinflektiivinen words, though limited, highlights the dynamic nature of language and the influence of external linguistic elements.