Pääteparit

Pääteparit, literally ending pairs, is a term used in Finnish linguistics to describe pairs of inflectional suffixes that express the same grammatical meaning but appear as two phonologically conditioned variants (allomorphs). They are a common feature in Finnish noun and adjective inflection and illustrate how vowel harmony and other phonological factors shape suffix choices.

Typical examples include sets such as the inessive endings -ssa/-ssä (meaning “in”), the elative endings -sta/-stä (meaning “from”), and the adessive endings -lla/-llä (meaning “on”). The choice between the two variants is largely determined by the stem’s last vowel: after a back vowel, the -ssa/-sta/-lla forms are used, and after a front vowel, the -ssä/-stä/-llä forms are used. Many endings have additional variants or extend to other cases, creating larger systems of allomorphs.

In linguistic analysis, identifying pääteparit helps explain how a single grammatical function can be realized by multiple suffixes depending on phonological context. In language teaching, they clarify why forms shift in different environments. In computational morphology and corpus annotation, rules or models often encode these pairs as parallel variants to generate or recognize inflected forms efficiently.

Limitations: not all endings have allomorph pairs, and some show more complex alternations due to stem changes, consonant gradation, or loanword phonology. Pääteparit thus reflect language-specific patterns and historical developments within Finnish and related Finnic languages.