Language Types

Now, you need to choose a language type. Here are some options to choose from and some vocabulary:

• morpheme-smallest grammatical unit in a language. Ex.un-, forgive, -ing.
• inflection-a change in the form of a word to express a grammatical function. Ex. word+s; inflecting for number
• derivation-making a new word from an existing one. Ex. unhappy from happy

Analytical Languages

Analytical languages are languages that have a low morpheme-per-word ratio, low inflection, and low derivation. Examples are English, Chinese, and Bulgarian.

Isolating Languages

Isolating languages are analytic languages with a strict one morpheme per word ratio. Examples are Vietnamese, Classical Chinese, and Sumerian.

Synthetic Languages

Synthetic languages are languages that have a medium morpheme-per-word ratio, moderate inflection, and moderate derivation. Examples are Russian, Greek, and Latin.

Polysynthetic Languages

Polysynthetic languages are languages that have a high morpheme-per-word ratio, high inflection,and high derivation.Examples are Ojibwe, Inuit, and the Iroquiouan languages.

Fusional Languages

Fusional languages are languages that use a single inflecting morpheme to convey multiple grammatical features. Examples are Danish, Spanish, and Punjabi.

Agglutinative Languages

Agglutinative languages are languages that has one inflecting morpheme per grammatical feature. Examples are Ganda, Blackfoot, and Malayalam.



Inflectional Morphology Map by Matthew Dryer on Wikipedia