affiksipääte

An affiksipääte, a Finnish linguistic term, refers to a suffix that attaches to a word's stem to modify its grammatical function or meaning. These suffixes are integral to Finnish grammar, which is highly agglutinative, meaning words are formed by stringing together multiple morphemes. An affiksipääte is a type of morpheme that specifically appears at the end of a word.

Finnish uses affiksipäätteitä extensively for various grammatical purposes. For instance, they can indicate case, possession, or number. The word "talossani" exemplifies this: "talo" is the stem meaning "house," "-ssa" is a case ending signifying location (in), and "-ni" is a possessive suffix indicating "my." Thus, "talossani" translates to "in my house."

Unlike inflections in some other languages that might alter the stem itself, Finnish affiksipäätteitä are typically added sequentially to the stem. This results in long words where each suffix contributes a distinct piece of grammatical information. The precise form of an affiksipääte can also change depending on vowel harmony and consonant gradation rules within the Finnish language. Understanding these affixes is crucial for comprehending and producing correct Finnish sentences.