inflektált

Inflektált refers to a grammatical concept primarily used in linguistics to describe the process of modifying a word to express different grammatical functions or attributes. The term originates from the Latin word *inflectere*, meaning "to bend," reflecting how word forms are "bent" or altered to fit into a sentence structure. Inflection is a fundamental aspect of morphology, the study of word structure, and is common in many languages, particularly those with rich inflectional systems like Hungarian, Russian, Latin, and Sanskrit.

In inflected languages, words change their form based on their role in a sentence. For example, nouns may change endings to indicate case (such as nominative, accusative, or genitive), verbs may shift to show tense, mood, or person, and adjectives may agree with nouns in gender, number, or case. These changes help convey meaning without relying solely on word order or auxiliary words. Unlike agglutinative languages, where affixes are added in a linear sequence, inflected languages often involve more complex alterations to the root form, sometimes altering vowel sounds or consonant patterns.

Hungarian is a notable example of an inflected language, where words undergo significant morphological changes. For instance, the noun *ház* ("house") can transform into *házak* ("houses") by adding a suffix, or into *házat* ("house [accusative]") by changing its ending to reflect its grammatical function. Verbs in Hungarian also exhibit inflection, with forms like *olvas* ("reads [present]") and *olvasta* ("read [past]") demonstrating tense and aspect shifts.

While inflection is a defining feature of many languages, some languages, such as English, have reduced their inflectional systems over time, relying more on auxiliary verbs, prepositions, and word order to convey grammatical relationships. Despite this, inflection remains a crucial tool in linguistic analysis, helping linguists understand how languages encode meaning through word forms.