Editing Synthetic language (section)

==Synthetic and analytic languages==
Synthetic languages combine (''synthesize'') multiple concepts into each word. [[Analytic language]]s break up (''analyze'') concepts into separate words. These classifications comprise two ends of a spectrum along which different languages can be classified. The present-day [[English language|English]] is seen as analytic, but it used to be fusional. Certain synthetic qualities (as in the inflection of verbs to show [[grammatical tense|tense]]) were retained.

The distinction is, therefore, a matter of degree. The most analytic languages, [[isolating languages]], consistently have one morpheme per word, while at the other extreme, in polysynthetic languages such as some [[Amerindian language|Native American languages]]<ref>{{cite web |title=synthetic language |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/synthetic-language |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. |access-date=9 December 2018}}</ref> a single inflected verb may contain as much information as an entire English sentence.

In order to demonstrate the nature of the isolating-analytic–synthetic–polysynthetic classification as a "continuum", some examples are shown below.

===Isolating===

* [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] lacks [[Inflection|inflectional morphology]] almost entirely, and most words consist of either one- or two-syllable morphemes, especially due to the very numerous [[Compound (linguistics)|compound words]].

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
!Chinese text
|{{lang|zh|明天}}||{{lang|zh|我}}||{{lang|zh|的}}||{{lang|zh|朋友}}||{{lang|zh|会}}||{{lang|zh|为}}||{{lang|zh|我}}||{{lang|zh|做}}||{{lang|zh|生日}}||{{lang|zh|蛋糕}}
|-
!Transliteration
|míngtiān||wǒ||de||péngyou||huì||wèi||wǒ||zuò||shēngrì||dàngāo
|-
!Literal translation
|dawn day||I||of||friend friend||will||for||I||make||birth day||egg cake
|-
!Meaning
|tomorrow|| I ||([[Grammatical particle|genitive particle]](=[[Saxon genitive|'s]]))|| friend || will ||for|| I ||make||birthday||cake 
|-
| colspan="12" | "Tomorrow my friend(s) will make a birthday cake for me."
|}

However, with rare exceptions, each syllable in Mandarin (corresponding to a single written character) represents a morpheme with an identifiable meaning, even if many of such morphemes are [[Bound morpheme|bound]]. This gives rise to the [[common misconception]] that Chinese consists exclusively of "words of one syllable". As the sentence above illustrates, however, even simple Chinese words such as ''míngtiān'' 'tomorrow' (''míng'' "next" + ''tīan'' "day") and ''péngyou'' 'friend' (a compound of ''péng'' and ''yǒu'', both of which mean 'friend') are synthetic compound words.

The Chinese language of the classic works (of [[Confucius]] for example) and southern dialects to a certain extent is more strictly monosyllabic: each character represents one word. The evolution of modern Mandarin Chinese was accompanied by a reduction in the total number of phonemes. Words which previously were phonetically distinct became homophones. Many disyllabic words in modern Mandarin are the result of joining two related words (such as péngyou, literally "friend-friend") in order  to resolve the phonetic ambiguity. A similar process is observed in some English dialects. For instance, in the [[Southern American English|Southern dialects of American English]], it is not unusual for the short vowel sounds {{IPAblink|ɪ}} and {{IPAblink|ɛ}} to be indistinguishable before [[nasal consonants]]: thus the words "pen" and "pin" are [[homophone]]s (see [[pin-pen merger]]). In these dialects, the ambiguity is often resolved by using the compounds "ink-pen" and "stick-pin", in order to clarify which "p*n" is being discussed.

===Analytic===
* [[English language|English]]:
**"He travelled by hovercraft on the sea" is largely isolating, but ''travelled'' (although it is possible to say "did travel" instead) and ''hovercraft'' each have two morphemes per word, the former being an example of relational synthesis (inflection), and the latter of compounding synthesis (a special case of derivation with another free morpheme instead of a bound one).

===Rather synthetic===
* [[Japanese language|Japanese]]:
**{{lang|ja|私たちにとって、この泣く子供の写真は見せられがたいものです。}} {{transliteration|ja|Watashitachi ni totte, kono naku kodomo no shashin wa miseraregatai mono desu}} means strictly literally, 'To us, these photos of a child crying are things that are difficult to be shown', meaning "We cannot bear being shown these photos of a child crying" in more idiomatic English. In the example, most words have more than one morpheme and some have up to five.
*[[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]:
**{{Script/Hebrew|אתמול סיפרתי לחברים שלי על הרעיון, שעליו חשבתי}} {{transliteration|he|Etmol siparti l'khaverim sheli al hara'ayon, she'alav khashavti}}. this sentence means "Yesterday I told my friends about the idea I was thinking about". From this example we can see that Hebrew verbs are conjugated by tense/mood and person (including gender and number). In addition, there are prepositions that are also conjugated, but by person, like {{script/Hebrew|של}} {{transliteration|he|shel}} and {{Script/Hebrew|על}} {{transliteration|he|al}}. More at: [[Modern Hebrew grammar]].
 

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Comparison between English and Hebrew (this table should be read right-to-left)
|-
| חשב/תי || ש/על/יו || ה/רעיון || על || של/י || ל/חבר/ים || סיפר/תי || אתמול
|-
| I thought || that about it || the idea || about || my || to friends || I told || Yesterday
|}

*[[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]:
**Селото, селото, пустото селото откак заселено. {{transliteration|bg|Seloto, seloto, pustoto seloto, otkak zaseleno}}. this sentence means "That village, that particular village, that village has always been empty ever since it was settled". From this example we can see that Bulgarian nouns are inflected by definiteness, gender, number. Bulgarian verbs are conjugated by tense, mood, person, gender, number, and evidential marking. Bulgarian is a fusional inflecting language with some analyticity (including prepositions in the nominal morphology, and some analytical-synthetic tenses in the verbal morphology).

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Comparison between English and Bulgarian (this table should be read left-to-right)
|-
| Село'''то'''|| село'''то'''|| пусто'''то''' || село'''то'''|| откак || заселено
|-
| '''That''' village || '''that particular''' village || '''has always been''' empty || '''that''' village || ever since || it was settled
|}

The definite articles are not only suffixes but are also noun inflections expressing thought in a synthetic manner.

===Very synthetic===
* [[Finnish language|Finnish]]: 
**''Käyttäytyessään tottelemattomasti oppilas saa jälki-istuntoa'' 
**"Should they behave in an insubordinate manner, the student will get detention." 
**Structurally: behaviour (present/future tense) (of their) obey (without) (in the manner/style) studying (they who (should be)) gets detention (some). Practically every word is derived and/or inflected. However, this is quite formal language, and (especially in speech) would have various words replaced by more analytic structures: ''Kun oppilas käyttäytyy tottelemattomasti, hän saa jälki-istuntoa'' meaning 'When the student behaves in an insubordinate manner, they will get detention'.
* [[Georgian language|Georgian]]: 
**{{lang|ka|გადმოგვახტუნებინებდნენო}} ''gadmogvakht'unebinebdneno'' (''gadmo-gv-a-kht'un-eb-in-eb-d-nen-o'') 
**"They said that they would be forced by them (the others) to make someone to jump over in this direction". 
**The word describes the whole sentence that incorporates tense, subject, direct and indirect objects, their plurality, relation between them, direction of the action, conditional and causative markers, etc.
* [[Classical Arabic]]: 
**{{Lang|ar|أوأعطيناكموه عبثًا؟}} ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|’awa’aʼṭaynākumūhu ʻabathan}}'' (''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|wa-aʻṭay-nā-ku-mū-hu ʻabath-an}}'') 
**"And did we give it (masc.) to you futilely?" in Arabic, each word consists of one root that has a basic meaning (''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|aʻṭā}}'' &nbsp;'give' and ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|ʻabath}}'' &nbsp;'futile'). Prefixes and suffixes are added to make the word incorporate subject, direct and indirect objects, number, gender, definiteness, etc.