Editing Isolating language

{{Redirect|Uninflected|the use in grammar|Uninflected word}}
{{Distinguish|Language isolate}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{Short description|Language with a very low morpheme per word ratio}}{{Linguistic typology topics}}
An '''isolating language''' is a [[linguistic typology|type of language]] with a [[morpheme]] per [[word]] ratio close to one, and with no [[inflectional]] [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] whatsoever. In the extreme case, each word contains a single morpheme. Examples of widely spoken isolating languages are [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]<ref name="eajor">{{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}}</ref> in West Africa and [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]]<ref name=brit/><ref name=silglos>{{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}}</ref> (especially its [[colloquial]] [[Register (sociolinguistics)|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.<ref name=brit>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Analytic language |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |date=20 July 1998 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/analytic-language}}</ref>

Isolating languages contrast with [[synthetic language]]s, also called [[inflection|inflectional languages]], where words often consist of multiple morphemes.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Synthetic languages are subdivided into the classifications [[fusional]], [[agglutinative language|agglutinative]], and [[polysynthetic]], which are based on how the morphemes are combined.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

==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 language|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 [[grammatical aspect|aspect]] meaning, and the inflectional morpheme ''-yat''/-ят inflects for four units of meaning (third-[[Agreement (linguistics)#Person|person]] subject, [[Agreement (linguistics)#Number|plural]] subject, present/future [[grammatical tense|tense]], indicative [[grammatical mood|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.
<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Polysynthetic language | website=Japan Module | url=https://www.japanpitt.pitt.edu/glossary/polysynthetic-language | access-date=4 April 2023}}</ref>

==Examples==
Some isolating languages include:
* [[Classical Chinese]]<ref>{{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}}</ref>
* [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]]<ref name=brit/><ref name="silglos" />
* [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]<ref name=eajor/>
* [[Khmer language]] 
* [[Thai language]]
* [[Central Flores languages]]
* [[Malay trade and creole languages]] of Eastern Indonesia, including:<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
** [[Ambonese Malay]]
** [[Kupang Malay]]
** [[Larantuka Malay]]
** [[Manado Malay]]
** [[North Moluccan Malay]]
** [[Papuan Malay]]<ref>{{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}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Analytic language]]
* [[Free morpheme]]
* [[Linguistic typology]]
* [[Synthetic language]]
* [[Zero-marking language]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Sapir, Edward (1921). [http://www.bartleby.com/186/6.html Chapter 6: "Types of linguistic structure"]. In ''[[Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech]]''.

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[[Category:Isolating languages| ]]

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