Abstract

Abstract Most morphologists distinguish analytic/isolating from synthetic languages. In ana- lytic languages ‘most word-forms are made up of a single morph’ (Bauer 1988: 246), clearly not the Bantu or Niger-Congo case. Synthetic languages are divided into polysynthetic, inflectional/fusional, and agglutinating. Polysynthetic is irrelevant, as it refers to languages having very long strings of bound morphemes, as in Algonkian, often equivalent to a whole long sentence in a language such as English. Inflectional and agglutinating are often presented as a contrast—a language is one or the other. Both types have in common that the major word classes, such as noun and verb, consist of a stem and in?ectional morphemes.

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