isolating language

{{Short description|Language with a very low morpheme per word ratio}}{{Linguistic typology topics}}

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{{cite web |title=A Computerized Identification System for Verb Sorting and Arrangement in a Natural Language: Case Study of the Nigerian Yoruba Language |url=http://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/A-Computerized-Identification-System-for-Verb-Sorting-and-Arrangement-in-a-Natural-Language-Case-Study-of-the-Nigerian-Yoruba-Language.pdf |access-date=4 April 2023 |website=eajournals.org}} in West Africa and Vietnamese{{cite web |title=Isolating Language |website=Glossary of Linguistic Terms |date=3 December 2015 |url=https://glossary.sil.org/term/isolating-language |access-date=4 April 2023}} (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.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Analytic language |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |date=20 July 1998 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/analytic-language}}

Isolating languages contrast with synthetic languages, also called inflectional languages, where words often consist of multiple morphemes.{{cite book |last=Whaley |first=Lindsay J. |title=Introduction to Typology: The Unity and Diversity of Language |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontoty0000whal |url-access=registration |year=1997 |publisher=SAGE Publications, Inc |chapter=Chapter 7: Morphemes |isbn=9780803959620}} Synthetic languages are subdivided into the classifications fusional, agglutinative, and polysynthetic, which are based on how the morphemes are combined.{{cite web |title=Lecture No. 13 |website=bucknell.edu |url=https://www.departments.bucknell.edu/linguistics/lectures/05lect13.html#:~:text=Languages%20that%20have%20no%20affixal,fewer%20affixes%20are%20called%20fusional |access-date=4 April 2023}}

Explanation

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.

{{cite web|url=https://moodle.studiumdigitale.uni-frankfurt.de/moodle/pluginfile.php/486924/mod_resource/content/2/Synthetic%20and%20analytic_Morpho_Typo.pdf |title=Morphological Typology|website=studiumdigitale.uni-frankfurt.de|access-date=4 April 2023}}{{cite web | title=Polysynthetic language | website=Japan Module | url=https://www.japanpitt.pitt.edu/glossary/polysynthetic-language | access-date=4 April 2023}}

Examples

Some isolating languages include:

Classical Chinese{{cite web | title=Isolating language | website=Sorosoro | date=5 September 2015 | url=https://www.sorosoro.org/en/2015/09/isolating-language/ | access-date=4 April 2023}}
Vietnamese
Yoruba
Khmer language
Thai language
Central Flores languages
Malay trade and creole languages of Eastern Indonesia, including:{{Cite book |first = Scott H. | last = Paauw | title = The Malay contact varieties of eastern Indonesia: A typological comparison | date = 2009 | pages = | oclc = 6002898562 | publisher = The State University of New York at Buffalo | url = https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~dryer/PaauwMalayIndonesia.pdf | access-date = 2021-08-08 | language = en }}
Ambonese Malay
Kupang Malay
Larantuka Malay
Manado Malay
North Moluccan Malay
Papuan Malay{{Cite book|last=Kluge|first=Angela|url=http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/78|title=A Grammar of Papuan Malay|date=2017|publisher=Language Science Press|isbn=978-3-944675-86-2|series=Studies in Diversity Linguistics 11|location=Berlin|doi=10.5281/zenodo.376415|doi-access=free|page=22}}

isolating language

Explanation

Examples

See also

References

Further reading