Aglutináló

Aglutináló is a term derived from the Latin word "agglutinare," meaning to glue or stick together. In linguistics, it refers to a type of language where grammatical functions are expressed by joining affixes to a root word. These affixes are typically invariable and have a single grammatical meaning.

In an aglutináló language, words are formed by combining a root with one or more morphemes, each representing a distinct piece of meaning or grammatical information. For example, a single word might convey the subject, verb tense, object, and plurality, all through a series of suffixes or prefixes. This contrasts with fusional languages, where a single affix may carry multiple grammatical meanings, or isolating languages, where words tend to remain in their base form and grammatical relationships are shown through word order or separate particles.

Examples of aglutináló languages include Turkish, Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian, and many languages of the Uralic and Turkic families. The structure of these languages allows for the creation of very long and complex words that can express a complete thought. Linguists often analyze the morphology of languages to classify them as aglutináló, fusional, or isolating, as this characteristic significantly influences the language's overall structure and how meaning is conveyed. The clear separation of morphemes in aglutináló languages makes them highly regular and systematic, often facilitating language learning for those familiar with their structural principles.