endaffix

Endaffix is a term used in linguistics to describe affixes that attach to the right edge of a word form, effectively functioning as suffixes. The word highlights the position of the morpheme at the end of a base or stem, rather than its specific semantic category. The term is not universally adopted; some authors simply call such morphemes suffixes, while others reserve endaffix for cases where right-edge morphemes interact with other word-structure elements, such as clitics or multiple suffixes.

Characteristics of endaffixes include their placement at the word’s end and their role in inflectional or derivational processes. They may encode a range of grammatical or semantic categories, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, case, voice, or derivational meaning. Endaffixes frequently occur in languages with rich suffixal systems, including many agglutinative and fusional languages, and they can appear in stacks or sequences with ordering constraints relative to other end-position morphemes.

The distinction between endaffixes and simple suffixes is mostly terminological. In practice, many linguists use endaffix when emphasizing edge-positioning in complex word formation or in languages where end-bound morphemes interact with other affixation processes in nontrivial ways, whereas the term suffix may be preferred for more general discussions of right-edge morphemes.

See also: suffix, affix, infix, circumfix, clitic.