agglutinatiivisuus

Agglutinatiivisuus refers to a linguistic typological characteristic where words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each with a distinct grammatical meaning. These morphemes are typically affixed to a root word in a linear fashion, and each affix generally represents only one grammatical function, such as tense, number, or case. This contrasts with fusional languages, where a single affix can express multiple grammatical features simultaneously, and isolating languages, where words tend to be single morphemes.

In agglutinative languages, the morphemes maintain their individual forms and meanings, making them relatively easy to segment and analyze. For example, in Turkish, the word "evlerimde" (in my houses) can be broken down into "ev" (house), "-ler" (plural), "-im" (my), and "-de" (in). Each of these is a distinct morpheme with a clear meaning.

Many Finno-Ugric languages, such as Finnish and Hungarian, are highly agglutinative. Turkic languages, Korean, and Japanese also exhibit strong agglutinative features. The clear separation of morphemes in agglutinative languages can contribute to a high degree of regularity in grammar, though the sheer number of possible combinations can still lead to complex word forms. The concept of agglutinatiivisuus is a fundamental one in linguistic typology, helping to categorize and understand the structural diversity of human languages.