For fusion in word-formation, see Assimilation (linguistics).

A fusional language (also called inflecting language) is a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by its tendency to "squish together" many morphemes in a way which can be difficult to segment. Linguistic typology is the typology that classifies languages by their features. ... Morphological typology was developed by brothers Friedrich and August von Schlegel. ... An isolating language is a language in which the vast majority of morphemes are free morphemes and are considered to be full-fledged words. By contrast, in a synthetic language, a word is composed of agglutinated or fused morphemes that denote its syntactic meanings. ... A synthetic language, in linguistic typology, is a language with a high morpheme-to-word ratio. ... It has been suggested that Agglutination be merged into this article or section. ... Polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i. ... Oligosynthetic (from the Greek ολίγοι, meaning few) is a hypothetical designation for a language using an extremely small array of morphemes, perhaps numbering only in the hundreds, which combine synthetically to form statements. ... Morphology is a subdiscipline of linguistics that studies word structure. ... In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative) is one that treats the agent of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. ... An active language is one where the only argument of an intransitive verb (that is, the subject) is marked sometimes in the same way as the subject of a transitive verb, and some other times in the same way as the direct object of a transitive verb. ... A tripartite language is one that marks the agent, experiencer, and patient verb arguments each in different ways. ... A direct-inverse language is one where morphosyntactic markers vary according to compliance or non-compliance with normal rules governing the neutral order of verb arguments with respect to the position of each on the animacy hierarchy, similar to the way that Indo-European neuters were not originally regarded as... The syntactic pivot is the verb argument around which sentences revolve, in a given language. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Thematic role. ... Word order, in linguistic typology, refers to the order in which words appear in sentences across different languages. ... In linguistics, a VO language is a language in which the verb typically comes before the object. ... In linguistic typology, agent-verb-object (AVO), commonly called subject-verb-object (SVO), is a sentence structure where the agent comes first, the verb second, and the object third. ... Verb Agent Object (VAO) or Verb Subject Object (VSO) is a term in linguistic typology. ... Verb Object Agent or Verb Object Subject - commonly used in its abbreviated form VOA or VOS - is a term in Linguistic typology. ... In linguistics, an OV language is a language in which the object comes before the verb. ... In linguistic typology, Agent Object Verb (AOV) or Subject Object Verb (SOV) is the type of languages in which the agent, object, and verb of a sentence appear (usually) in that order. ... Object Agent Verb (OAV) or Object Subject Verb (OSV) is one of the permutations of expression used in Linguistic typology. ... Object Verb Agent (OVA) or Object Verb Subject (OVS) is one of the permutations of expression used in linguistic typology. ... Time Manner Place is a term used in linguistic typology to state the general order of adpositional phrases in a languages sentences: yesterday by car to the store. It is common among SOV languages. ... Place Manner Time is a term used in linguistic typology to state the general order of adpositional phrases in a languages sentences: to the store by car yesterday. It would seem that it is common among SVO languages. ... Assimilation is a regular and frequent sound change process by which a phoneme changes to match an adjacent phoneme in a word. ... A synthetic language, in linguistic typology, is a language with a high morpheme-to-word ratio. ... It has been suggested that Agglutination be merged into this article or section. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ...

The canonical examples of fusional languages are Latin and German; in general, all conservative Indo-European languages are fusional. Another notable group of fusional languages is the Semitic languages group. Canonical is an adjective derived from canon. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... 14th century BC diplomatic letter in Akkadian, found in Tell Amarna. ...

A good illustration of fusionality in language is the Latin word boni, "good men". The ending -i denotes masculine gender, nominative case, and plural number. Changing any of these features requires replacement of the suffix -i with something else.

A feature that distinguishes fusional languages from agglutinating ones is the occurrence of irregular forms: this wouldn't happen in an agglutinating language since the synthetic elements retain a meaning of their own. Fusional languages are generally believed to have descended from agglutinating languages, though there is no linguistic evidence in the form of attested language changes to confirm this view. On the other hand, fusional languages generally tend to lose their inflection over the centuries—some languages much more quickly than others. For example, Slovenian, Lithuanian, and Armenian are about as fusional as Proto-Indo-European, but modern English and Afrikaans are nearly analytic. The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Look up Wiktionary:Swadesh lists for Afrikaans and Dutch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An isolating language is a language in which the vast majority of morphemes are free morphemes and are considered to be full-fledged words. By contrast, in a synthetic language, a word is composed of agglutinated or fused morphemes that denote its syntactic meanings. ...

Another typical feature of fusional languages is their systems of declensions. In German for instance the definite and indefinite articles are declined according to the grammatical gender of the noun and which of the four grammatical cases it falls into; these being nominative, accusative, genative and dative. The definite article, for example is declined in the following fashion:

Nominative: der (masculine) die (feminine) das (neuter) die (plural)

Accusative: den (masculine) die (feminine) das (neuter) die (plural)

Genitive: des (masculine) der (feminine) des (neuter) der (plural)

Dative: dem (masculine) der (feminine) dem (neuter) den (plural)

Adjectives are also declined accordingly to the gender of the noun they describe, whether it is preceded by a definite article (weak declension), indefinite article (mixed declension) or no article (strong declension).

Examples:

Der Hamster (masculine noun, nominative case)

Des Hamsters (masculine noun, genative case)

And adding the adjective klein "little":

Ein kleiner Hamster "a little hamster" (mixed declension, nominative case)

Der kleine Hamster "the little hamster" (weak declension, nominative case)

Ich sah den kleinen Hamster "I saw the little hamster" (weak declension, accusative case)

Mit kleinem Hamster "with little hamster" (no article; strong declension, dative case).

English retains remnants of the Germanic case system only with regard to personal prounouns (e.g. "you see me" — accusative case).

See also

• Inflection
• Synthetic language

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