Inflekními

Inflekními is a term used in linguistics to describe a pattern of inflection in which grammatical information is encoded through both internal stem changes and affixal marking. It emphasizes that inflectional processes can involve more than simply adding affixes; they may require coordinated changes to the word stem, sometimes interacting with phonological alternations.

The concept appears in typological discussions of languages with rich morphophonology and is sometimes used to describe systems in which tense, mood, number, case, or person are marked by a combination of stem alternations and suffixes or prefixes. The term is a neologism in some scholarly circles and is not universally adopted; many studies describe such phenomena with established terms like ablaut, stem modification, or complex inflection.

In practice, identifying inflekními involves analyzing whether a language uses simultaneous stem alternations and affixation to encode grammatical categories. A hypothetical example would mark past tense through a stem vowel change together with a person-number suffix, rather than with a single affix alone. These patterns can interact with phonology, such as vowel harmony or consonant mutation, complicating morphophonemic analysis.

Critics argue that inflekními risks obscuring separate phonological processes or conflating distinct morpho-syntactic phenomena. Proponents contend it helps illuminate language systems where multiple layers of marking co-occur.

See also: inflection, morphology, morphophonology, ablaut, stem change, typology.