Oligosynthetic language

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Linguistic typology
Morphological
Analytic
Synthetic
Fusional
Agglutinative
Polysynthetic
Oligosynthetic
Morphosyntactic
Alignment
Accusative
Ergative
Philippine
Active-stative
Tripartite
Inverse marking
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
Time Manner Place
Place Manner Time
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An oligosynthetic language (from the Greek ὀλίγος, meaning "few" or "little") is any language using very few morphemes, perhaps only a few hundred, which combine synthetically to form statements. It is contrasted to polysynthetic languages. Oligosynthesis is almost entirely theoretical and would depend heavily on the creation of lengthy compound words, to an extent far exceeding that of regular synthetic languages.

There are no known natural human languages that are oligosynthetic. The Native American languages Nahuatl and Blackfoot have in the past been claimed to exhibit oligosynthetic qualities (most notably by Benjamin Whorf). But the linguistic community has largely rejected these claims, preferring to categorize Nahuatl and Blackfoot as polysynthetic.

Because no natural language has been shown to exhibit oligosynthetic properties, some linguists regard true oligosynthesis as impossible or impractical for productive use by humans.

Some constructed languages (conlangs), for example Sona, Socialese, aUI, Ygyde, Kali-sise, and Vuyamu, may be considered oligosynthetic.

Unlike oligosynthetic languages, oligoanalytic or oligoisolating languages are ones which have few morphemes but tend toward isolating structure. For example, the conlang Toki Pona has been described as oligoisolating.[1]

The "newspeak" spoken by Oceania in "1984", tends theoretically to be a oligosynthetic language (remember how the aim is to reduce the morphemes, in order to anything could be said using those few roots and constructing a new idea by synthesis, i.e. doubleplusungood)


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