Oligosynthetic (from the Greek ὀλίγος, meaning "few, little") 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. The chief difference between a polysynthetic and an oligosynthetic language is the total number of morphemes, which for the latter would be much smaller. Such a language would possess, in a manner of speaking, an "oligarchy" of morphemes. Speech would depend heavily on the creation of lengthy compound words, to an extent far exceeding that of regular synthetic languages. Linguistic typology is the typology that classifies languages by their features. ... Morphological typology was developed by brothers Friedrich and August von Schlegel. ... An analytic language (or isolating language) is a language in which the vast majority of morphemes are free morphemes and 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. ... A fusional 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. ... It has been suggested that Agglutination be merged into this article or section. ... Polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i. ... 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. ... A nominative-accusative language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of transitive verbs distinguishing them from the subject of both transitive and intransitive verbs. ... An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative) is one that treats the subject 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. ... VO languages are primarily right-branching, or head-initial, i. ... In linguistic typology, subject-verb-object (SVO) is the sequence subject verb object in neutral expressions: Sam ate oranges. ... Verb Subject Object—commonly used in its abbreviated form VSO—is a term in linguistic typology. ... Verb Object Subject - commonly used in its abbreviated form VOS - is a term in Linguistic typology. ... OV languages are primarily left-branching, or head-final, i. ... In linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV) is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear (usually) in that order. ... Object Subject Verb (OSV) is one of the permutations of expression used in Linguistic typology. ... 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. ... A hypothesis (from ancient Greek hypotithenai, to put under, to suppose) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest language unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... A synthetic language, in linguistic typology, is a language with a high morpheme-to-word ratio. ... Polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i. ... Oligarchy is a political regime where most or all political power effectively rests with a small segment of society (typically the most powerful, whether by wealth, family, military strength, ruthlessness, or political influence). ...

At this time, oligosynthesis is almost entirely theoretical, as linguists have yet to discover an actual human language that meets the criteria for classification. Certain Native American languages, namely Nahuatl and Blackfoot, have in the past been claimed to exhibit oligosynthetic qualities (most notably by Benjamin Whorf). However, the linguistic community has largely rejected these assertions, preferring to categorize Nahuatl and Blackfoot as polysynthetic. The following is a list of linguists, those who study linguistics. ... Native American languages are the indigenous languages of the Americas, spoken by Native Americans from the southern tip of South America to Alaska and Greenland. ... Nahuatl is a native language of central Mexico. ... Blackfoot is the name of any of the Algonquian languages spoken by the Blackfoot tribe of Native Americans, who currently live in the northwestern plains of North America. ... Benjamin Lee Whorf (April 24, 1897 – July 26, 1941) was an American linguist. ...

Indeed, the very concept of oligosynthetic language has always been regarded as somewhat far-fetched. The fact that no existing language, living or dead, has been demonstrably shown to exhibit oligosynthetic properties has led some linguists to regard true oligosynthesis as impossible (or at any rate, wildly impractical) for productive use by human beings. An extinct language is a language which is no longer natively spoken: it is estimated that one natural human language dies every two weeks. ...

There are, however, a large number of oligosynthetic conlangs, some of which have been constructed especially to experiment with this characteristic. Many well-known a priori conlangs, such as Ro, may be considered oligosynthetic, though not intentionally so. An artificial or constructed language (known colloquially as a conlang among aficionados), is a language whose vocabulary and grammar were specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture as with natural languages. ... A priori is a Latin phrase meaning from the former or less literally before experience. In much of the modern Western tradition, the term a priori is considered to mean propositional knowledge that can be had without, or prior to, experience. ... Ro is an a priori constructed language created by Rev. ...