Have you ever heard of agglutinating languages? They are languages like the GermanThe Japanese, the Hungarian and the Turkishwhose characteristic is that the words are formed with theagglutinationor through the union of Morfemi, each of which is the bearer of a specific and unchanged meaning. This process allows you to build even complex terms through theaddition of prefixes and suffixing to the roots of wordshowever, leaving every autonomous and recognizable morpheme. In other words, like modular bricks, each part of the word maintains its meaning and combines the others without changing, allowing you to create even very long and complex terms.
What are the agglutinating languages and what are the characteristics
The main feature of agglutinating languages lies in the transparency And regularity of their morphological structure. Each morpheme added to the root conveys a single grammatical information, such as verbal time, case, number or person. Among the most well -known agglutinating languages we find the urail languages, the tongue languages, the Basque, the Japanese, the Korean, the Esperanto, the Turkish and the Languages Quechua. Here are practical examples to understand the structure of these languages:
- In Hungarianthe word “Ház“It means” home “. Adding the suffix”-Ak“you get”Házak“(” Houses “), while with the addition of”-ban“It is formed”Házban“(” in the house “). By combining both suffixes, you get”Házakban“(” in the houses “).
- The Turkish It is characterized by a regular morphology, in which the suffixes are added in sequence to the root to change the meaning of the word. For example: “EV“means” home “,”Evler“It will indicate” houses “, and”Evlerde“It will mean” in the houses “.
- The Japanese, and in the same way the Korean Which is similar to him in the structure, he uses particles and suffixing to indicate grammatical functions. For example, the verb “taberu“means” eating “, while”tabemasu“It is the courteous form of the same verb.
In the’learning Of this type of languages, the advantages for students are remarkable, as the regularity and predictability of morphological structures often make the formation and interpretation of words easier. Essentially, once the basic morphemes and the combination rules have learned, the construction of new terms becomes easier and more intuitive. On the other hand, however, precisely this characteristic can represent a challenge, as the need to master so many bombs requires attention, practice, and precise understanding of use.
Differences with other linguistic types
In linguistics there are several ways to classify languages, and one of these is the morphological typewhich is based on the internal structure of the words distinguishing four main linguistic categories: the insulating, flexive, incorporating languages and the agglutinating.
In languages flexivelike the Latin ol ‘Italian, A single morphema can be the bearer of more grammatical information. An example we find it in the Latin word “rosarum“, in which ending”-arum“It simultaneously indicates the genitive case and the plural number. The insulating languages Instead, like the Chinesehave a still different structure, in which words are mostly monomorphic and grammatical relationships express themselves through the order of words or the use of separate functional words. In agglutinating languageson the other hand, the fusion of multiple meanings is avoided in a single morpheme, each represents a single grammatical function. For those interested in the study of languages, knowledge of agglutinating offers interesting ideas about the diversity and complexity of global linguistic structures.
