pääteparin

Pääteparin is a term used in Finnish linguistics to describe a pair of suffixes that express the same grammatical category but appear in two phonologically conditioned allomorphs. The concept helps describe how endings change form to fit the phonological properties of the stem, particularly vowel harmony.

Typical examples of ending pairs include inessive -ssa/-ssä, allative -lla/-llä, and elative -sta/-stä. These pairs represent the same grammatical function (location or direction, for instance) but present two different surface forms. For example, talossa means “in the house” (inessive with -ssa), talolla means “on the house” (allative with -llä), and talosta means “from the house” (elative with -sta). The choice between the two allomorphs in each pair depends on the stem’s vowel composition and phonotactic rules.

In practice, identifying and analyzing pääteparit is common in Finnish grammar, language teaching, and computational morphology. They aid in predicting word forms from a given stem and in understanding how vowels and syllable structure influence suffix realization. While many languages have similar alternations, the Finnish system is particularly transparent due to its extensive vowel harmony and set of well-defined ending pairs.

See also: Finnish grammar, vowel harmony, inflection, allomorphs, morphophonology.