taaltypes

Taaltypes, or linguistic typology, is a field within linguistics that studies the structural features of languages in order to classify them into types. The aim is to describe cross-linguistic patterns and regularities rather than to prescribe rules for any particular language.

Typological classification often proceeds along two main axes: morphology and syntax. Morphological types include isolating languages (little affixation, such as Mandarin), agglutinative languages (clear affixes per morpheme, such as Turkish), fusional languages (morphemes fuse multiple meanings, such as Russian), and polysynthetic languages (complex words with many morphemes, such as Inuktitut). Syntactic typology considers basic word order (subject–verb–object, subject–object–verb, etc.), and alignment (nominative–accusative vs ergative–absolutive). Many languages exhibit features from multiple categories.

Phonological and other dimensions are also studied, such as tone versus non-tone systems, vowel inventories, and phonotactics. Data sources include field studies and typological databases like the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS), and researchers use sample languages to identify patterns and universals.

Limitations: Typological classifications are descriptive and probabilistic, not rigid boxes; languages change over time and contact can blur boundaries. The field emphasizes variation and aims to explain why certain patterns are common or rare rather than to rank languages.