View source for Synthetic language

{{Short description|Type of language morphology}}
{{For|a language consciously designed by people|Constructed language}}
{{Linguistic typology topics}}

A '''synthetic language''' is a language that is characterized by denoting [[Syntax|syntactic]] relationships between words via [[inflection]] or [[agglutination]]. Synthetic languages are statistically characterized by a higher morpheme-to-word ratio relative to [[Analytic language|analytic languages]].

[[Fusional language]]s favor inflection and [[agglutinative language]]s favor agglutination. Further divisions include [[polysynthetic language]]s (most belonging to an agglutinative-polysynthetic subtype, although [[Navajo]] and other [[Athabaskan languages]] are often classified as belonging to a fusional subtype) and [[oligosynthetic language]]s (only found in [[constructed language|constructed languages]]). In contrast, rule-wise, the [[analytic languages]] rely more on [[auxiliary verb]]s and [[word order]] to denote syntactic relationship between words.

Adding [[morphemes]] to a root word is used in inflection to convey a grammatical property of the word, such as denoting a subject or an object.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Language Files|publisher=Ohio State University|year=2016|editor-last=Dawson|editor-first=Hope C.|edition=12|pages=172–175|editor-last2=Phelan|editor-first2=Michael}}</ref> Combining two or more morphemes into one word is used in [[agglutinative language|agglutinating languages]], instead.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Language Files|publisher=Ohio State University|year=2016|editor-last=Dawson|editor-first=Hope C.|edition=12|pages=156|editor-last2=Phelan|editor-first2=Michael}}</ref> For example, the word ''fast'', if inflectionally combined with ''-er'' to form the word ''faster'', remains an adjective, while the word ''teach'' derivatively combined with ''-er'' to form the word ''teacher'' ceases to be a verb. Some linguists consider relational morphology to be a type of derivational morphology, which may complicate the classification.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Sapir/Sapir_1921/Sapir_1921_06.html|title=Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech|last=Sapir|first=Edward|access-date=9 December 2018}}</ref>

==Forms of synthesis==
Derivational and relational morphology represent opposite ends of a spectrum; that is, a single word in a given language may exhibit varying degrees of both of them simultaneously. Similarly, some words may have derivational morphology while others have relational morphology.

===Derivational synthesis===
In '''derivational synthesis''', morphemes of different types ([[noun]]s, [[verbs]], [[affix]]es, etc.) are joined to create new words. That is, in general, the morphemes being combined are more concrete units of meaning.<ref name=":1" /> The morphemes being synthesized in the following examples either belong to a particular grammatical class – such as [[adjective]]s, nouns, or [[preposition]]s – or are affixes that usually have a single form and meaning:

* [[German language|German]]
{{interlinear|lang=de|indent=4
|top= {{lang|de|Aufsichtsratsmitgliederversammlung}}
|{{wikt-lang|de|Aufsicht}} -s- {{wikt-lang|de|Rat}} -s- {{wikt-lang|de|Mitglieder}} {{wikt-lang|de|Versammlung}}
|supervision {} council {} members assembly
|"The supervisory board's memebers' meeting"}}
::* This word demonstrates the hierarchical construction of synthetically derived words:
:::# {{lang|de|Aufsichtsratsmitglieder}} "[the] supervisory board's + members" + {{lang|de|Versammlung}} "meeting"
:::## {{lang|de|Aufsichtsrat}} "supervisory board" + ''s'' (''[[German nouns#Compounds|Fugen-s]]'') + {{lang|de|Mitglieder}} "members"
:::### {{lang|de|Aufsicht}} "supervision" + ''s'' + {{lang|de|Rat}} "council, board"
:::#### {{lang|de|auf-}} "on, up" + {{lang|de|Sicht}} "sight"
:::### {{lang|de|Mitglied}} "member" + {{lang|de|-er}} plural
:::#### {{lang|de|[[wikt:mit-|mit-]]}} "co-" + {{lang|de|[[wikt:Glied|Glied]]}} "element, constituent part"
:::## {{lang|de|[[wikt:ver-#German|ver-]]}} (a verb prefix of variable meaning) + {{lang|de|[[wikt:sammeln|sammeln]]}} "to gather" + {{lang|de|-ung}} present participle
:::*{{lang|de|auf-}}, {{lang|de|mit-}}, {{lang|de|-er}}, {{lang|de|ver-}}, and {{lang|de|-ung}} are all [[bound morpheme]]s.
* [[Greek language|Greek]]
{{fs interlinear|lang=el|indent=4
|top= {{lang|el|προπαροξυτόνησις}} ({{transliteration|el|proparoxutónesis}})
|{{wikt-lang|el|προ}} {{wikt-lang|el|παρ-}} {{wikt-lang|el|οξύ}} {{wikt-lang|el|τόνος|τόν}} {{wikt-lang|el|-ησις}}
|pro par oxý tón -esis
|pre {next to} sharp pitch/tone tendency
|"Tendency to accent on the [[proparoxytone]] &#91;third-to-last&#93; position"}}
* [[Polish language|Polish]]
{{interlinear|lang=pl|indent=4
|top= {{wikt-lang|pl|przystanek}}
|{{wikt-lang|pl|przystań}} {{wikt-lang|pl|-ek}}
|harbor DIM
|"Public transportation stop &#91;without facilities&#93;" (i.e. [[bus stop]], [[tram stop]], or [[railway station|rail halt]])—compare to {{lang|pl|[[wikt:dworzec|dworzec]]}}.}}
* [[English language|English]]
{{interlinear|lang=en|indent=4
|top= ''[[Antidisestablishmentarianism (word)|antidisestablishmentarianism]]'' 
|{{wikt-lang|en|anti-}} {{wikt-lang|en|dis-}} {{wikt-lang|en|establish}} {{wikt-lang|en|-ment}} {{wikt-lang|en|-arian}} {{wikt-lang|en|-ism}}
|against ending {to institute} {{gcl|NS|noun suffix}} advocate ideology
|"the movement to prevent revoking the Church of England's status as the official church &#91;of England, Ireland, and Wales&#93;."}}
:* English word chains such as ''child labour law'' may count as well, because it is merely an orthographic convention to write them as isolated words. Grammatically and phonetically they behave like one word (stress on the first syllable, plural morpheme at the end).
* [[Russian language|Russian]]
{{fs interlinear|lang=ru|indent=4
|top= {{wikt-lang|ru|достопримечательность}} ({{transliteration|ru|dostoprimečátelʹnostʹ}}) 
|{{wikt-lang|ru|достойный|досто}} {{wikt-lang|ru|примечательный|примечательн}} {{wikt-lang|ru|-ость}}
|dosto primečátelʹn -ostʹ
|deserving notable {{gcl|NS|noun suffix}}
|"Place of interest"}}
* [[Persian language|Persian]]
{{fs interlinear|lang=fa|indent=4
|top= {{wikt-lang|fa|نوازندگی}} ({{transliteration|fa|navâzandegi}})
|{{wikt-lang|fa|نواز}} {{wikt-lang|fa|نده#suffix|ــ‌نده}} {{wikt-lang|fa|گی#Suffix|ــ‌گی}}
|navâz -ande -gi
|{play music} -ing {{gcl|NS|noun suffix}}
|"musicianship" or "playing a musical instrument"}}
* [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]
{{fs interlinear|lang=uk|indent=4
|top= {{lang|uk|навздогін}} ({{transliteration|uk|navzdohin}})
|на вз до гін
|na vz do hin
|{direction/intent} {adjective} {approach} {fast movement}|"after something or someone that is moving away"}}
* international [[classical compounds]] based on Greek and Latin
{{interlinear|lang=en|indent=4
|top= hypercholesterolemia ({{lang|grc|υπερχοληστερολαιμία}})
|{{wikt-lang|en|hyper-}} {{wikt-lang|en|cholesterol}} {{wikt-lang|en|-emia}}
|high cholesterol blood
|the presence of high levels of [[cholesterol]] in the blood.}}
:::* alternately, cholesterol can be read as [[wikt:chole-|chole-]] + {{lang|grc|[[wikt:στερεός|στερεός]]}}({{transliteration|grc|stereós}}) + [[wikt:-ol#English|-ol]], as in "bile + solid + &#91;alcohol suffix&#93;", or "the solid alcohol present in bile".

===Relational synthesis===
In '''relational synthesis''', [[Root (linguistics)|root words]] are joined to [[bound morpheme]]s to show grammatical function. In other words, it involves the combination of more abstract units of meaning than derivational synthesis.<ref name=":1" /> In the following examples many of the morphemes are related to [[voice (grammar)|voice]] (e.g. passive voice), whether a word is in the [[subject (grammar)|subject]] or [[object (grammar)|object]] of the sentence, [[possession (linguistics)|possession]], [[plural]]ity, or other abstract distinctions in a language:

* [[Italian language|Italian]]
{{interlinear|lang=it|indent=4
|top= {{lang|it|comunicandovele}}
|{{wikt-lang|it|comunicare|comunic}} {{wikt-lang|it|-ando}} {{wikt-lang|it|ve}} {{wikt-lang|it|le}}
|communicate GER you.PL those.FEM.PL
|"Communicating those&#91;feminine plural&#93; to you&#91;plural&#93;"}}
* [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
{{interlinear|lang=es|indent=4
|top= {{lang|es|escribiéndomelo}}
|{{wikt-lang|es|escribir|escrib}} {{wikt-lang|es|-iendo|iéndo}} {{wikt-lang|es|me}} {{wikt-lang|es|lo}}
|write GER me it
|"Writing it to me"}}
* [[Estonian language|Estonian]]
{{interlinear|lang=et|indent=4
|top= {{lang|et|raskestikasvatatav}}
|{{wikt-lang|et|raske}} {{wikt-lang|et|kasvatama}} 
|raske-sti-kasvata-tav
|heavy-ly-educat-able}}
|"with learning disabilities"
* [[Catalan language|Catalan]]
{{interlinear|lang=es|indent=4
|top= {{lang|ca|Anem-se'n / Anem-nos-en}}
|{{wikt-lang|ca|anar|an}} {{wikt-lang|ca|-em|-em}} {{wikt-lang|ca|-nos|-se/-nos}} {{wikt-lang|ca|en|-en/'n}}
|go we ourselves from
|"Let's get out of here"}}
* [[Nahuatl]]
{{interlinear|lang=nah|indent=4
|top= {{lang|nah|ōcāltizquiya}}
|ō c ā lti zquiya
|PAST 3SG-{{gcl|OBJ|object}} water CAUS IRR
|"She would have bathed him"}}
* [[Latin language|Latin]]
{{interlinear|lang=la|indent=4
|top= {{wikt-lang|la|comprimuntur}}
|{{wikt-lang|la|con-|com}} {{wikt-lang|la|premo|prim}} {{wikt-lang|la|comprimunt|unt}} {{wikt-lang|la|comprimuntur|ur}}
|together crush they PASS
|"They are crushed together"}}
* [[Albanian language|Albanian]]
**{{lang|sq|jepmani}} 
***"give + to me + it&#91;singular&#93; + you&#91;plural&#93; + &#91;[[imperative mood]]&#93;"
***'You, give it to me'
* [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
{{fs interlinear|lang=ja|indent=4
|top= {{lang|ja|見させられがたい}} ({{transliteration|ja|misaseraregatai}})
|{{wikt-lang|ja|見}} {{wikt-lang|ja|させる|させ}} {{wikt-lang|ja|られる|られ}} {{wikt-lang|ja|かたい|がたい}}
|mi sase rare gatai
|see CAUS PASS difficult
|"It's difficult to be shown &#91;this&#93;"}}
* [[Finnish language|Finnish]]
{{interlinear|lang=fi|indent=4
|top= {{lang|fi|juoksentelisinkohan}}
|{{wikt-lang|fi|juosta}} {{wikt-lang|fi|-ella}} -isin {{wikt-lang|fi|-ko}} {{wikt-lang|fi|-han}}
|run FREQ I.COND Q {{gcl|CAS|casual suffix}}
|"I wonder if I should run around &#91;aimlessly&#93;"}}
* [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]
{{interlinear|lang=hu|indent=4
|top= {{lang|hu|házaitokban}}
|{{wikt-lang|hu|ház}} {{wikt-lang|hu|-a}} {{wikt-lang|hu|-i}} {{wikt-lang|hu|-tok}} {{wikt-lang|hu|-ban}}
|house POSS PL your.PL in
|"In your houses"}}
{{interlinear|lang=hu|indent=4
|top= {{lang|hu|szeretlek}}
|{{wikt-lang|hu|szeret}} {{wikt-lang|hu|-lek}}
|love {I REFL you}
|"I love you"}}
* [[Turkish language|Turkish]]
{{interlinear
| lang = tr
| indent = 4
| top = {{lang|tr|Afyonkarahisarlılaştıramayabileceklerimizden misiniz?}}|[[Afyonkarahisar]] {{wikt-lang|tr|-li|-lı}} -laş -tır {{wikt-lang|tr|-ama}} (y) {{wikt-lang|tr|bilmek|-abil}} {{wikt-lang|tr|-ecek}} {{wikt-lang|tr|-ler}} {{wikt-lang|tr|-imiz}} {{wikt-lang|tr|-den}} {{wikt-lang|tr|misiniz}}?|Afyonkarahisar {citizen of} transform PASS notbe (thematic) able FUT PL we among you-PL-FUT-Q|"Are you&#91;plural/formal&#93; amongst the ones whom we might not be able to make citizens of [[Afyonkarahisar]]?"
}}
* [[Georgian language|Georgian]]
{{fs interlinear|lang=ka|indent=4
|top= {{lang|ka|გადმოგვახტუნებინებდნენო}} ({{transliteration|ka|gadmogvakhṭunebinebdneno}})
|{{wikt-lang|ka|გადმო-}} გვ- ა- {{wikt-lang|ka|ხტუნვა|ხტუნ}} {{wikt-lang|ka|-ებ-|-ებ}} -ინ {{wikt-lang|ka|-ებ-|-ებ}} -დ -ნენ {{wikt-lang|ka|-ო}}
|gadmo gv a khtun eb in eb d nen o
|"They said that they would be forced by them &#91;the others&#93; to make someone to jump over in this direction." (The word describes the whole sentence that incorporates tense, subject, object, relation between them, direction of the action, conditional and causative markers etc.)}}

==Types of synthetic languages==

===Agglutinating languages===
{{Main|Agglutinative language}}
Agglutinating languages have a high rate of agglutination in their words and sentences, meaning that the morphological construction of words consists of distinct morphemes that usually carry a single unique meaning.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.glottopedia.org/index.php/Agglutinating_language|title=Agglutinating language|website=Glottopedia|access-date=9 December 2018}}</ref> These morphemes tend to look the same no matter what word they are in, so it is easy to separate a word into its individual morphemes.<ref name=":2" /> Morphemes may be bound (that is, they must be attached to a word to have meaning, like affixes) or [[free morpheme|free]] (they can stand alone and still have meaning).

*Swahili is an agglutinating language.<ref name=":2" /> For example, distinct morphemes are used in the verbs' conjugation:
**Ni-na-soma: I-present-read or I am reading
**U-na-soma: you-present-read or you are reading
**A-na-soma: s/he-present-read or s/he is reading

===Fusional languages===
{{Main|Fusional language}}
Fusional languages are similar to agglutinating languages in that they involve the combination of many distinct morphemes. However, morphemes in fusional languages are often assigned several different lexical meanings, and they tend to be fused together so that it is difficult to separate individual morphemes from one another.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://glossary.sil.org/term/fusional-language|title=Fusional Language|date=2015-12-04|website=Glossary of Linguistic Terms|access-date=9 December 2018}}</ref>

===Polysynthetic===
{{Main|Polysynthetic language}}
Polysynthetic languages are considered the most synthetic of the three types because they combine multiple [[word stem|stems]] as well as other morphemes into a single continuous word. These languages often turn nouns into verbs.<ref name=":2" /> Many [[Alaska Native languages|Native Alaskan]] and other Native American languages are polysynthetic.

*Mohawk: Washakotya'tawitsherahetkvhta'se means "He ruined her dress" (strictly, 'He made the-thing-that-one-puts-on-one's body ugly for her'). This one inflected verb in a polysynthetic language expresses an idea that can only be conveyed using multiple words in a more analytic language such as English.

===Oligosynthetic===<!---[[Oligosynthetic language]] redirects here after AfD with result "Merge"--->
Oligosynthetic languages are a theoretical notion created by [[Benjamin Whorf]]. Such languages would be functionally synthetic, but make use of a very limited array of morphemes (perhaps just a few hundred). The concept of an oligosynthetic language type was proposed by Whorf to describe the [[Native American languages|Native American]] language [[Nahuatl]], although he did not further pursue this idea.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ellos |first=William J |year=1982 |title=Benjamin Lee Whorf and Ultimate Reality and Meaning |journal=Ultimate Reality and Meaning |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=140–150 |doi=10.3138/uram.5.2.140 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Though no natural language uses this process, it has found its use in the world of [[conlang|constructed languages]], in [[international auxiliary language|auxlangs]] such as Ygyde<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://csqbtzv.cluster029.hosting.ovh.net|title=Ygyde Language Introduction|access-date=16 May 2024}}</ref> and [[aUI (constructed language)|aUI]].

==Synthetic and analytic languages==
Synthetic languages combine (''synthesize'') multiple concepts into each word. [[Analytic language]]s break up (''analyze'') concepts into separate words. These classifications comprise two ends of a spectrum along which different languages can be classified. The present-day [[English language|English]] is seen as analytic, but it used to be fusional. Certain synthetic qualities (as in the inflection of verbs to show [[grammatical tense|tense]]) were retained.

The distinction is, therefore, a matter of degree. The most analytic languages, [[isolating languages]], consistently have one morpheme per word, while at the other extreme, in polysynthetic languages such as some [[Amerindian language|Native American languages]]<ref>{{cite web |title=synthetic language |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/synthetic-language |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. |access-date=9 December 2018}}</ref> a single inflected verb may contain as much information as an entire English sentence.

In order to demonstrate the nature of the isolating-analytic–synthetic–polysynthetic classification as a "continuum", some examples are shown below.

===Isolating===

* [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] lacks [[Inflection|inflectional morphology]] almost entirely, and most words consist of either one- or two-syllable morphemes, especially due to the very numerous [[Compound (linguistics)|compound words]].

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
!Chinese text
|{{lang|zh|明天}}||{{lang|zh|我}}||{{lang|zh|的}}||{{lang|zh|朋友}}||{{lang|zh|会}}||{{lang|zh|为}}||{{lang|zh|我}}||{{lang|zh|做}}||{{lang|zh|生日}}||{{lang|zh|蛋糕}}
|-
!Transliteration
|míngtiān||wǒ||de||péngyou||huì||wèi||wǒ||zuò||shēngrì||dàngāo
|-
!Literal translation
|dawn day||I||of||friend friend||will||for||I||make||birth day||egg cake
|-
!Meaning
|tomorrow|| I ||([[Grammatical particle|genitive particle]](=[[Saxon genitive|'s]]))|| friend || will ||for|| I ||make||birthday||cake 
|-
| colspan="12" | "Tomorrow my friend(s) will make a birthday cake for me."
|}

However, with rare exceptions, each syllable in Mandarin (corresponding to a single written character) represents a morpheme with an identifiable meaning, even if many of such morphemes are [[Bound morpheme|bound]]. This gives rise to the [[common misconception]] that Chinese consists exclusively of "words of one syllable". As the sentence above illustrates, however, even simple Chinese words such as ''míngtiān'' 'tomorrow' (''míng'' "next" + ''tīan'' "day") and ''péngyou'' 'friend' (a compound of ''péng'' and ''yǒu'', both of which mean 'friend') are synthetic compound words.

The Chinese language of the classic works (of [[Confucius]] for example) and southern dialects to a certain extent is more strictly monosyllabic: each character represents one word. The evolution of modern Mandarin Chinese was accompanied by a reduction in the total number of phonemes. Words which previously were phonetically distinct became homophones. Many disyllabic words in modern Mandarin are the result of joining two related words (such as péngyou, literally "friend-friend") in order  to resolve the phonetic ambiguity. A similar process is observed in some English dialects. For instance, in the [[Southern American English|Southern dialects of American English]], it is not unusual for the short vowel sounds {{IPAblink|ɪ}} and {{IPAblink|ɛ}} to be indistinguishable before [[nasal consonants]]: thus the words "pen" and "pin" are [[homophone]]s (see [[pin-pen merger]]). In these dialects, the ambiguity is often resolved by using the compounds "ink-pen" and "stick-pin", in order to clarify which "p*n" is being discussed.

===Analytic===
* [[English language|English]]:
**"He travelled by hovercraft on the sea" is largely isolating, but ''travelled'' (although it is possible to say "did travel" instead) and ''hovercraft'' each have two morphemes per word, the former being an example of relational synthesis (inflection), and the latter of compounding synthesis (a special case of derivation with another free morpheme instead of a bound one).

===Rather synthetic===
* [[Japanese language|Japanese]]:
**{{lang|ja|私たちにとって、この泣く子供の写真は見せられがたいものです。}} {{transliteration|ja|Watashitachi ni totte, kono naku kodomo no shashin wa miseraregatai mono desu}} means strictly literally, 'To us, these photos of a child crying are things that are difficult to be shown', meaning "We cannot bear being shown these photos of a child crying" in more idiomatic English. In the example, most words have more than one morpheme and some have up to five.
*[[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]:
**{{Script/Hebrew|אתמול סיפרתי לחברים שלי על הרעיון, שעליו חשבתי}} {{transliteration|he|Etmol siparti l'khaverim sheli al hara'ayon, she'alav khashavti}}. this sentence means "Yesterday I told my friends about the idea I was thinking about". From this example we can see that Hebrew verbs are conjugated by tense/mood and person (including gender and number). In addition, there are prepositions that are also conjugated, but by person, like {{script/Hebrew|של}} {{transliteration|he|shel}} and {{Script/Hebrew|על}} {{transliteration|he|al}}. More at: [[Modern Hebrew grammar]].
 

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Comparison between English and Hebrew (this table should be read right-to-left)
|-
| חשב/תי || ש/על/יו || ה/רעיון || על || של/י || ל/חבר/ים || סיפר/תי || אתמול
|-
| I thought || that about it || the idea || about || my || to friends || I told || Yesterday
|}

*[[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]:
**Селото, селото, пустото селото откак заселено. {{transliteration|bg|Seloto, seloto, pustoto seloto, otkak zaseleno}}. this sentence means "That village, that particular village, that village has always been empty ever since it was settled". From this example we can see that Bulgarian nouns are inflected by definiteness, gender, number. Bulgarian verbs are conjugated by tense, mood, person, gender, number, and evidential marking. Bulgarian is a fusional inflecting language with some analyticity (including prepositions in the nominal morphology, and some analytical-synthetic tenses in the verbal morphology).

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Comparison between English and Bulgarian (this table should be read left-to-right)
|-
| Село'''то'''|| село'''то'''|| пусто'''то''' || село'''то'''|| откак || заселено
|-
| '''That''' village || '''that particular''' village || '''has always been''' empty || '''that''' village || ever since || it was settled
|}

The definite articles are not only suffixes but are also noun inflections expressing thought in a synthetic manner.

===Very synthetic===
* [[Finnish language|Finnish]]: 
**''Käyttäytyessään tottelemattomasti oppilas saa jälki-istuntoa'' 
**"Should they behave in an insubordinate manner, the student will get detention." 
**Structurally: behaviour (present/future tense) (of their) obey (without) (in the manner/style) studying (they who (should be)) gets detention (some). Practically every word is derived and/or inflected. However, this is quite formal language, and (especially in speech) would have various words replaced by more analytic structures: ''Kun oppilas käyttäytyy tottelemattomasti, hän saa jälki-istuntoa'' meaning 'When the student behaves in an insubordinate manner, they will get detention'.
* [[Georgian language|Georgian]]: 
**{{lang|ka|გადმოგვახტუნებინებდნენო}} ''gadmogvakht'unebinebdneno'' (''gadmo-gv-a-kht'un-eb-in-eb-d-nen-o'') 
**"They said that they would be forced by them (the others) to make someone to jump over in this direction". 
**The word describes the whole sentence that incorporates tense, subject, direct and indirect objects, their plurality, relation between them, direction of the action, conditional and causative markers, etc.
* [[Classical Arabic]]: 
**{{Lang|ar|أوأعطيناكموه عبثًا؟}} ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|’awa’aʼṭaynākumūhu ʻabathan}}'' (''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|wa-aʻṭay-nā-ku-mū-hu ʻabath-an}}'') 
**"And did we give it (masc.) to you futilely?" in Arabic, each word consists of one root that has a basic meaning (''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|aʻṭā}}'' &nbsp;'give' and ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|ʻabath}}'' &nbsp;'futile'). Prefixes and suffixes are added to make the word incorporate subject, direct and indirect objects, number, gender, definiteness, etc.

==Increase in analyticity==
Haspelmath and Michaelis<ref>Haspelmath, M, & Michaelis, S. M. (2017). Analytic and synthetic. In ''Language Variation-European Perspectives VI: Selected papers from the Eighth International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 8), Leipzig 2015''. John Benjamins Publishing Company.</ref> observed that analyticity is increasing in a number of European languages. In the [[German language|German]] example, the first phrase makes use of inflection, but the second phrase uses a preposition. The development of preposition suggests the moving from synthetic to analytic.

{{interlinear|indent=3|glossing=link|des Hauses|the.GEN.SG house.GEN.SG|'the house's'}}
{{interlinear|indent=3|glossing=link|von dem Haus|of the.DAT.SG house.DAT.SG|'of the house'}}

It has been argued that analytic grammatical structures are easier for adults [[Second-language acquisition|learning a foreign language]]. Consequently, a larger proportion of non-native speakers learning a language over the course of its historical development may lead to a simpler morphology, as the preferences of adult learners get passed on to second generation native speakers. This is especially noticeable in the grammar of [[creole language]]s. A 2010 paper in ''[[PLOS ONE]]'' suggests that evidence for this hypothesis can be seen in correlations between morphological complexity and factors such as the number of speakers of a language, geographic spread, and the degree of inter-linguistic contact.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lupyan |first1=Gary |last2=Dale |first2=Rick |last3=O'Rourke |first3=Dennis |title=Language Structure Is Partly Determined by Social Structure |journal=PLOS ONE |date=20 January 2010 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=e8559 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0008559|pmid=20098492 |pmc=2798932 |bibcode=2010PLoSO...5.8559L |doi-access=free }}</ref>

According to [[Ghil'ad Zuckermann]], [[Modern Hebrew]] (which he calls "Israeli") "is much more analytic, both with nouns and verbs", compared with [[Classical Hebrew]] (which he calls "Hebrew").<ref>See pp. 65-67 in [[Ghil'ad Zuckermann|Zuckermann, Ghil‘ad]] (2020), ''[[Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond]]'', [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/revivalistics-9780199812790 Oxford University Press]. {{ISBN|9780199812790}} / {{ISBN|9780199812776}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Col div|colwidth=40em}}
*[[Analytic language]]
*[[Bound morpheme]]
*[[Isolating language]]
*[[Linguistic typology]] 
*[[Morphological derivation]]
*[[Morphology (linguistics)]]
{{colend}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* <Small>[[SIL International|SIL]]:</small> [http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAMorphologicalProcess.htm What is a ''morphological process''?]
* <Small>SIL:</small> [http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsDerivation.htm What is ''derivation''?]
* <Small>SIL:</small> [http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/ComparisonOfInflectionAndDeriv.htm Comparison of inflection and derivation]
* <Small>Lexicon of Linguistics:</small> [http://www2.let.uu.nl/UiL-OTS/Lexicon/zoek.pl?lemma=Inflection Inflection], [http://www2.let.uu.nl/UiL-OTS/Lexicon/zoek.pl?lemma=Derivation Derivation]
* <Small>Lexicon of Linguistics:</small> [http://www2.let.uu.nl/UiL-OTS/Lexicon/zoek.pl?lemma=Base Base], [http://www2.let.uu.nl/UiL-OTS/Lexicon/zoek.pl?lemma=Stem Stem], [http://www2.let.uu.nl/UiL-OTS/Lexicon/zoek.pl?lemma=Root Root]
* {{cite web|url= http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/ikos/EXFAC03-AAS/h05/larestoff/linguistics/Chapter%204.(H05).pdf |title=Linguistic typology }}&nbsp;{{small|(275&nbsp;[[Kibibyte|KiB]])}}, chapter 4 of [http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/ikos/EXFAC03-AAS/h05/larestoff/linguistics/ Halvor Eifring & Rolf Theil: ''Linguistics for Students of Asian and African Languages'']

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[[Category:Synthetic languages| ]]

[[eo:Lingva tipologio#Sintezaj lingvoj]]