Re: polysynthetic languages

Chris Bates wrote:
> and still mean that I want to build a house, even if it makes sense. I
> thought what Christophe said about french being polysynthetic was quite
> interesting actually... and it made my wonder again like I have before,
> what apart from the position of stress is the difference between a very
> isolating and a very agglutinative or polysynthetic language?
Mostly, restrictions on order.  An isolating language can do things
like, in English: I will never go there, placing the adverb "never"
between the future morpheme "will" and the verb "go".  But, a
polysynthetic or agglutinating language restricts what morphemes can go
where, saying "Iwillgo never" or "Never Iwillgo".

Also, many agglutinating/polysynthetic languages have allomorphic
variations such as vowel harmony or assimilation.  Many affixes, and
even some stems, have 2 or more legal forms, e.g., nai-/ni- "future",
fa-/f-/v- "past", -va/-v "habitual".

The distinctions between any of these types is also a matter of degree,
it should be remembered.

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