Suffixmässige

Suffixmässige is a term used in linguistics to describe phenomena governed by suffixation, the attachment of linguistic material to the end of a base word to form new words or to express grammatical information. In this sense, suffixmässige processes include both derivational suffixes, which create new lexical items (for example forming nouns from verbs or adjectives from nouns), and inflectional suffixes, which mark case, number, tense, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories on a word.

Suffixmässige morphology is commonly contrasted with prefixmässige morphology, where affixation occurs at the beginning of a word, and with circumfixation or infixation, where affixes are added around or inside a base. In many languages, suffixation is a dominant mechanism of word formation. Languages such as Turkish and Finnish are highly suffixing, constructing complex words through long chains of suffixes; German combines productive suffixes with stem changes and compounding, resulting in a rich suffixal morphology.

Scholars use suffixmässige as a descriptive label rather than a formal typological category, and its exact scope can vary between languages and authors. The term is most common in German-language linguistic literature and is often encountered in discussions of morphological typology, word formation, and inflectional paradigms.

See also: Morphology, derivation, inflection, agglutination, prefixation, circumfixation.