Isolating language

"Uninflected" redirects here. For the use in grammar, see Uninflected word.

Not to be confused with Language isolate.

Language with a very low morpheme per word ratio

Linguistic typology

Morphological

* Analytic
* Isolating
* Synthetic
* Fusional
* Agglutinative
* Polysynthetic
* Oligosynthetic

Morphosyntactic

* Alignment
* Nominative–accusative
* Marked nominative
* Ergative–absolutive
* Split ergative
* Symmetrical voice
* Active–stative
* Tripartite
* Nominative–absolutive
* Direct-inverse
* Ditransitive/Monotransitive
* Secundative
* Indirective
* Zero-marking
* Dependent-marking
* Double-marking
* Head-marking
* Null-subject
* Syntactic pivot
* Theta role

Word order

* VO languages
* Subject–verb–object
* Verb–subject–object
* Verb–object–subject
* OV languages
* Subject–object–verb
* Object–subject–verb
* Object–verb–subject
* V1 word order
* V2 word order
* OS word order
* Free word order
* Time–manner–place
* Place–manner–time

Lexicon

* Color terms
* Numerals

* v
* t
* e

An isolating language is a type of language with a morpheme per word ratio close to one, and with no inflectional morphology whatsoever. In the extreme case, each word contains a single morpheme. Examples of widely spoken isolating languages are Yoruba[1] in West Africa and Vietnamese[2][3] (especially its colloquial register) in Southeast Asia.

A closely related concept is that of an analytic language, which uses unbound morphemes or syntactical constructions to indicate grammatical relationships. Isolating and analytic languages tend to overlap in linguistic scholarship.[2]

Isolating languages contrast with synthetic languages, also called inflectional languages, where words often consist of multiple morphemes.[4] Synthetic languages are subdivided into the classifications fusional, agglutinative, and polysynthetic, which are based on how the morphemes are combined.[5]

## Explanation

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Although historically, languages were divided into three basic types (isolating, inflectional, agglutinative), the traditional morphological types can be categorized by two distinct parameters:

* morpheme per word ratio (how many morphemes there are per word)
* degree of fusion between morphemes (how separable the inflectional morphemes of words are according to units of meaning represented)

A language is said to be more isolating than another if it has a lower morpheme per word ratio.

To illustrate the relationship between words and morphemes, the English term "rice" is a single word, consisting of only one morpheme (rice). This word has a 1:1 morpheme per word ratio. In contrast, "handshakes" is a single word consisting of three morphemes (hand, shake, -s). This word has a 3:1 morpheme per word ratio. On average, words in English have a morpheme per word ratio substantially greater than one.

It is perfectly possible for a language to have one inflectional morpheme yet more than one unit of meaning. For example, the Russian word vídyat/видят "they see" has a morpheme per word ratio of 2:1 since it has two morphemes. The root vid-/вид- conveys the imperfective aspect meaning, and the inflectional morpheme -yat/-ят inflects for four units of meaning (third-person subject, plural subject, present/future tense, indicative mood). Effectively, it has four units of meaning in one inseparable morpheme: -yat/-ят.

Languages with a higher tendency toward isolation generally exhibit a morpheme-per-word ratio close to 1:1. In an ideal isolating language, visible morphology would be entirely absent, as words would lack any internal structure in terms of smaller, meaningful units called morphemes. Such a language would not use bound morphemes like affixes.

The morpheme-to-word ratio operates on a spectrum, ranging from lower ratios that skew toward the isolating end to higher ratios on the synthetic end of the scale. A larger overall ratio suggests that a language leans more toward being synthetic rather than isolating. [6][7]

## Examples

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Some isolating languages include:

* Classical Chinese[8]
* Vietnamese[2][3]
* Yoruba[1]
* Khmer language
* Thai language
* Central Flores languages
* Malay trade and creole languages of Eastern Indonesia, including:[9]
* Ambonese Malay
* Kupang Malay
* Larantuka Malay
* Manado Malay
* North Moluccan Malay
* Papuan Malay[10]

## See also

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* Analytic language
* Free morpheme
* Linguistic typology
* Synthetic language
* Zero-marking language

## References

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1. ^ a b "A Computerized Identification System for Verb Sorting and Arrangement in a Natural Language: Case Study of the Nigerian Yoruba Language" (PDF). eajournals.org. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
2. ^ a b c "Analytic language". Encyclopedia Britannica. 20 July 1998.
3. ^ a b "Isolating Language". Glossary of Linguistic Terms. 3 December 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
4. ^ Whaley, Lindsay J. (1997). "Chapter 7: Morphemes". Introduction to Typology: The Unity and Diversity of Language. SAGE Publications, Inc. ISBN 9780803959620.
5. ^ "Lecture No. 13". bucknell.edu. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
6. ^ "Morphological Typology" (PDF). studiumdigitale.uni-frankfurt.de. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
7. ^ "Polysynthetic language". Japan Module. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
8. ^ "Isolating language". Sorosoro. 5 September 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
9. ^ Paauw, Scott H. (2009). The Malay contact varieties of eastern Indonesia: A typological comparison (PDF). The State University of New York at Buffalo. OCLC 6002898562. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
10. ^ Kluge, Angela (2017). A Grammar of Papuan Malay. Studies in Diversity Linguistics 11. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 22\. doi:10.5281/zenodo.376415. ISBN 978-3-944675-86-2.

## Further reading

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* Sapir, Edward (1921). Chapter 6: "Types of linguistic structure". In Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech.

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