päätepari

Päätepari, meaning “ending pair” in Finnish, is a term used in linguistics to describe a pair of suffix forms that attach to a word stem to express grammatical or derivational information. In analysis, the endings in a päätepari are treated as related variants of the same suffix, rather than as completely independent suffixes.

The concept is useful for describing regular patterns in inflectional paradigms, especially in languages with rich suffixal morphology. A päätepari can reflect allomorphy, where two suffix forms occur in complementary distribution or are conditioned by phonology or morphology. In grammar descriptions, a päätepari is often presented as a tuple (S1, S2), with the two endings being the related forms that can appear in a given paradigm. The stem itself remains constant while the ending changes according to factors such as person, number, tense, mood, case, or voice.

Examples are typically provided in grammar texts to illustrate concrete contexts, but the essential idea is that the endings are analyzed as a connected pair rather than as entirely separate suffixes. The term is primarily used in Finnish-language linguistic literature, teaching materials, and some comparative morphologies. It is not universally employed across all linguistic traditions, and its precise interpretation can vary by author or theoretical framework; however, the core notion remains a pair of morphologically linked endings conditioned by grammatical context.