Editing Fusional language

{{Short description|Language where one kind of inflection indicates multiple changes of aspect}}{{Linguistic typology topics}}

'''Fusional languages''' or '''inflected languages''' are a type of [[synthetic language]], distinguished from [[agglutinative language]]s by their tendency to use single [[inflection]]al [[morpheme]]s to denote multiple [[grammar|grammatical]], [[syntactic]], or [[semantic]] features. 

For example, the [[Spanish language|Spanish]] [[verb]] ''comer'' ("to eat") has the [[Grammatical person|first-person]] [[Grammatical number|singular]] [[preterite]] tense form ''comí'' ("I ate"); the single [[suffix]] ''-í'' represents ''both'' the features of first-person singular [[Agreement (linguistics)|agreement]] and preterite tense, instead of having a separate [[affix]] for each feature.

Another illustration of fusionality is the [[Latin language|Latin]] word {{lang|la|bonus}} ("good"). The ending {{lang|la|-us}} denotes masculine [[grammatical gender|gender]], [[nominative case]], and singular [[grammatical number|number]]. Changing any one of these features requires replacing the suffix {{lang|la|-us}} with a different one. In the form {{lang|la|bonum}}, the ending {{lang|la|-um}} denotes masculine [[accusative case|accusative]] singular, neuter accusative singular, or neuter nominative singular.

== Indo-European languages ==

Many [[Indo-European languages]] feature fusional morphology, including:
* [[Balto-Slavic languages]], e.g. [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], and the [[South Slavic languages]] (with the exception of [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] and [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]], which are partially [[analytic language|analytic]])
* [[Indo-Iranian languages]], e.g. [[Sanskrit]], [[Bengali language |Bengali]], [[Hindi]], [[Pashto language |Pashto]], [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]], [[Urdu]], [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]
* [[Latin]] and the [[Romance languages]], e.g. [[Italian language|Italian]], [[French language|French]], [[Spanish language |Spanish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], and [[Romanian language|Romanian]]
* [[Celtic languages]], e.g. [[Irish language|Irish]] and [[Welsh language|Welsh]]
* Some [[Germanic languages]], e.g. [[German language|German]], [[Old English]], [[Faroese language|Faroese]], and [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]
* [[Greek language|Greek]] (Classical and Modern) and [[Albanian language|Albanian]]

== Semitic languages ==
Another notable group of fusional languages is the [[Semitic languages]], including [[Hebrew]], [[Arabic]], and [[Amharic]]. These also often involve [[nonconcatenative morphology]], in which a word root is often placed into templates denoting its function in a sentence. Arabic is especially notable for this, with the common example being the root ''[[k-t-b]]'' being placed into multiple different patterns.

== Caucasian languages ==
[[Northeast Caucasian languages]] are weakly fusional.

== Uralic languages ==
A limited degree of fusion is also found in many [[Uralic languages]], like [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], and the [[Sami languages]], such as [[Skolt Sami language|Skolt Sami]], as they are primarily [[agglutinative language|agglutinative]].{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}

== Outside Eurasia ==
=== Americas ===
Unusual for a Native North American language, [[Navajo language|Navajo]] is sometimes described as fusional because of its complex and inseparable verb morphology.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sloane|first=Thomas O.|title=Encyclopedia of Rhetoric|date=2001|isbn=978-0-195-12595-5|publisher=[[Oxford University]] Press|page=442}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Languages of Native North America|date=2001|last=Mithun|first=Marianne|publisher=[[Cambridge University]] Press|isbn=978-0-521-29875-9|page=323}}</ref>

Some [[Amazonian languages]] such as [[Ayoreo language|Ayoreo]] have fusional morphology.<ref name="lang">Bertinetto, Pier Marco 2009. ''Ayoreo (Zamuco). A grammatical sketch''. Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. 8 n.s. [http://linguistica.sns.it/QLL/QLL09.htm]</ref>

The [[Fuegian languages|Fuegian]] language [[Selkʼnam language|Selkʼnam]] has fusional elements. For example, both [[evidentiality]] and [[agreement (linguistics)#gender|gender agreement]] are coded with a single suffix on the verb:<ref name=RojasBerscia2014>{{Cite book|title=A Heritage Reference Grammar of Selkʼnam|last=Rojas-Berscia|first=Luis Miguel|year=2014|location=Nijmegen |publisher=Radboud University}}</ref>

<section begin="list-of-glossing-abbreviations"/><div style="display:none;">
CERT:certainty (evidential):evidentiality
</div><section end="list-of-glossing-abbreviations"/>
{{interlinear|indent=2|glossing=link|lang=ona
|Ya k-tįmi x-įnn nį-y ya. 
|1P REL-land go-CERT.MASC PRES-MASC 1P
|'I go to my land.'}}

=== Africa ===
Some [[Nilo-Saharan]] languages such as [[Lugbara language|Lugbara]] are also considered fusional.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wals.info/chapter/20|title = WALS Online - Chapter Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives}}</ref>

==Loss of fusionality==
Fusional languages generally tend to lose their inflection over the centuries, some much more quickly than others.<ref name="unfolding">{{cite book | last = Deutscher | first = Guy | author-link = Guy Deutscher (linguist) |title = The unfolding of language: an evolutionary tour of mankind's greatest invention | publisher = Holt Paperbacks | location = New York | year = 2006 | edition = reprint | isbn = 978-0-8050-8012-4 }}{{page needed|date=June 2013}}</ref> [[Proto-Indo-European]] was fusional, but some of its descendants have shifted to a more [[analytic language|analytic]] structure such as [[Modern English]], [[Danish language|Danish]] and [[Afrikaans]] or to [[agglutinative language|agglutinative]] such as [[Persian language|Persian]] and [[Armenian language|Armenian]]. 

Other descendants remain fusional, including [[Sanskrit]], [[Ancient Greek language|Ancient Greek]], [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], [[Latvian language|Latvian]], [[Slavic languages]], as well as [[Latin]] and the [[Romance languages]] and certain [[Germanic languages]].

==Gain of fusionality==
Some languages shift over time from agglutinative to fusional. 

For example, most [[Uralic languages]] are predominantly agglutinative, but [[Estonian language|Estonian]] is markedly evolving in the direction of a fusional language. On the other hand, [[Finnish language|Finnish]], its close relative, exhibits fewer fusional traits and thereby has stayed closer to the mainstream Uralic type. However, [[Sámi languages]], while also part of the Uralic family, have gained more fusionality than Finnish and Estonian since they involve [[consonant gradation]] but also vowel [[apophony]].

==Fusional inflections==

Inflections in fusional languages tend to fall in two patterns, based on which part of speech they modify: [[declension]]s for nouns and adjectives, and [[Grammatical conjugation|conjugation]]s for verbs.

===Declension===
{{main article|Declension}}
{{Expand section|date=May 2013}}
One feature of many fusional languages is their systems of [[declension]]s in which nouns and adjectives have an affix attached to them that specifies [[grammatical case]] (their uses in the clause), [[number (grammar)|number]] and [[grammatical gender]]. Pronouns may also alter their forms entirely to encode that information. 

Within a fusional language, there are usually more than one declension; [[Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]] have five, and the [[Slavic languages]] have anywhere between three and seven. [[German language|German]] has multiple declensions based on the vowel or consonant ending the word, though they tend to be more unpredictable.

However, many descendants of fusional languages tend to lose their case marking. In most [[Romance languages|Romance]] and [[Germanic languages]], including Modern [[English language|English]] (with the notable exceptions of German, Icelandic and Faroese), encoding for case is merely vestigial because it no longer encompasses nouns and adjectives but only pronouns.

Compare the [[Italian language|Italian]] ''egli'' (masculine singular [[nominative]]), ''gli'' (masculine singular [[dative]], or indirect object), ''lo'' (masculine singular [[accusative]]) and ''lui'' (also masculine singular accusative but emphatic and [[indirect object|indirect case]] to be used with prepositions), corresponding to the single vestigial trio ''he, him, his'' in English.

===Conjugation===
{{main article|Grammatical conjugation}}
[[Grammatical conjugation|Conjugation]] is the alteration of the form of a [[verb]] to encode information about some or all of [[grammatical mood]], [[grammatical voice|voice]], [[grammatical tense|tense]], [[grammatical aspect|aspect]], [[grammatical person|person]], [[grammatical gender]] and [[grammatical number|number]]. In a fusional language, two or more of those pieces of information may be conveyed in a single morpheme, typically a suffix.

For example, in [[French language|French]], the verbal suffix depends on the mood, tense and aspect of the verb, as well as on the person and number (but not the gender) of its subject. That gives rise to typically [[French conjugation#First-group verbs (-er verbs)|45 different single-word forms]] of the verb, each of which conveys some or all of the following:
*'''mood''' ([[indicative mood|indicative]], [[subjunctive mood|subjunctive]], [[conditional mood|conditional]] or [[imperative mood|imperative]])
*'''tense''' ([[past tense|past]], [[present tense|present]] or [[future tense|future]])
*'''aspect''' ([[perfective aspect|perfective]] or [[imperfective aspect|imperfective]])
*'''person''' (first, second or third), and
*'''number''' (singular or plural). 

Changing any one of those pieces of information without changing the others requires the use of a different suffix, the key characteristic of fusionality.

English has two examples of conjugational fusion. The verbal suffix ''-s'' indicates a combination of present tense with both third-person and singularity of the associated subject, and the verbal suffix ''-ed'' used in a verb with no auxiliary verb conveys both [[progressive aspect|non-progressive aspect]] and past tense.

==See also==
* [[Inflection]]
* [[Synthetic language]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fusional languages| ]]
[[Category:Synthetic languages]]

[[eo:Lingva tipologio#Aglutinaj kaj fandaj lingvoj]]