ferrisie:

allthingslinguistic:

Morphological Typology (illustrations from SpecGram)

Descriptions adapted from The Lingua File: 

Analytic languages: also known as isolating languages because they’re composed of isolated, or free, morphemes. Free morphemes can be words on their own, such as cat or happy. Languages that are purely analytic in structure don’t use any prefixes or suffixes, ever. However, it’s rare to find a language that is purely analytic or synthetic since most languages have characteristics of both. Morphological typology is like a spectrum in which languages fit in somewhere from analytic to polysynthetic (a subtype of synthetic languages we’ll get to in a moment).

Mandarin Chinese and Vietnamese are good examples of analytic languages. […] English, on the other hand, is one of the most analytic Indo-European languages, but is still usually classified as a synthetic language. […]

Types of synthetic language (i.e. languages that have prefixes/suffixes): 

Agglutinating Languages:With these languages, morphemes within words are usually clearly recognizable in a way that makes it easy to tell where the morpheme boundaries are. Their affixes usually only have a single meaning. Turkish,Korean, Hungarian, Japanese, and Finnish are all in this group.

Fusional Languages: Similar to agglutinating languages, except that the morpheme boundaries are much more difficult to discern. Affixes are often fused with the stems, and can have multiple meanings. A prime example of a fusional language is Spanish, especially when it comes to verbs. In the wordhablo ”I speak”, the -o morpheme tells us that we’re dealing with a subject that is singular, first person, and in the present tense. It’s difficult to find a morpheme that means “speak”, however, since habl- is not a morpheme. Fusional languages can be tricky!

Polysynthetic Languages: These languages are undoubtedly some of the most difficult to learn. They often have verbs that can express the entirety of a typical sentence in English, which they do by incorporating nouns into verbs forms. For example, the Sora language of India has one word that means “I will catch a tiger”. Many Native American languages are polysynthetic.

This FASCINATES me.

reblogallthenerdythings:

we have literally created our own dialogue? language? here on tumblr and i think that is the most amazing thing ever please disregard my shitty editing skills

high context communication in a low-context environment, with preference for mechanisms that are easy to use and universally available. E.g., we prefer spaces and caps over bold and italics, because in the old tumblr interface, command/ctrl + i or B was unreliable and funky. It broke the flow of our typing, so we trained ourselves out of them. 

BUT you guys forgot the most fascinating part of our language! We’re not limited to words. We have reaction photos and gifs!

If I say Do u ever just have a day when

every single last one of you will know what I mean. 

GUYS SAVE ME. I have a 20 page paper due in the morning, and because I have both ADD and the self control of an angry 2-year-old, I only have 7 pages done. I can’t make myself start working on it again. I keep trying. I’ve already accepted that I won’t sleep tonight. That cup that is as big as my face? FULL of coffee. I don’t drink caffeine normally (oh the joys of being a classical singer) so it ought to pack a punch, but fuuuuuuucccckkkk why do I always do this to myself? I don’t even know what I’m going to do this week, because after this paper, I’ll have to go talk to prospective students on no sleep, then write program notes for my recital (a long way away, but I have to do 2 sets a semester), compose a piece at least 32 measures long, and read a book I don’t even own yet. By Tuesday. I just want it to be May 4th so I can see the Avengers and be done with classes. Exam week will literally be my easiest week of the semester, I just have to survive until it happens!

*end gratuitous whining of white only child living comfortably in America*

I don’t know if I’ll live through finals

Things I ought to be focusing on:

• Writing the 32 measure piece I have to finish for music theory. Chord progressions or melody due monday.
• Find someone willing to play said piece for me in class (sometimes I hate being a singer).
• learning what the hell augmented six chords are
• learning the words to two songs by tomorrow for my voice lesson studio class (like a final). Not hard, except:
  
  

  Automne au ciel brumeux, aux horizons navrants.
  Aux rapides couchants, aux aurores pâlies,
  Je regarde couler, comme l'eau du torrent,
         Tes jours faits de mélancolie.
  
  Sur l'aile des regrets mes esprits emportés,
  -Comme s'il se pouvait que notre âge renaisse!-
  Parcourent, en rêvant, les coteaux enchantés,
         Où jadis sourit ma jeunesse!
  
  Je sens, au clair soleil du souvenir vainqueur,
  Refleurir en bouquet les roses deliées,
  Et monter à mes yeux des larmes, qu'en mon coeur, 

         Mes vingt ans avaient oubliées!
  
  and
  
  

  Wie Melodien zieht es
  Mir leise durch den Sinn,
  Wie Frühlingsblumen blüht es,
  Und schwebt wie Duft dahin.
  
  Doch kommt das Wort und faßt es
  Und führt es vor das Aug',
  Wie Nebelgrau erblaßt es
  Und schwindet wie ein Hauch.
  
  Und dennoch ruht im Reime
  Verborgen wohl ein Duft,
  Den mild aus stillem Keime 

  Ein feuchtes Auge ruft.
  
  So yeah. 
• My paper on the ethnolinguistic vitality of Welsh culture and language which ought to be 20 pages long and is due Monday.
• Studying for Physics because I still don’t understand fluid dynamics
• finding a job for the summer
• tracking down a book I don’t have for my International Relations class that I don’t yet own and need to read by Tuesday. 
• laundry

What I am Focusing On:

• Sherlock
• Avengers
• Tom Hiddleston’s face
• Benedict Cumberbatch’s
• Avengers
• How much I want to see Cabin in the Woods
• Avengers
• Starship, AVPS, and Holy Musical, B@man! by starkid
• Dylan Saunders’ singing voice and how much I want to marry it and have little talented musical genius babies
• (and this one gets me ALL the nerd points) the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Welsh, which is not related to my paper at all, because ethnolinguistic vitality is what makes a language survive while others die out, and that’s mostly social. Nobody’s speaking Welsh because it doesn’t have subordinating conjunctions. 

I have to do this for my own sanity

• Prestige of Language
  Use at respected institutions, perceived legitimacy, use by “cool” people, taught in schools or not.
  Landweer, UNESCO, Karan
• Relationship between language minority and majority
  Government policy, tension or lack of tension between the two groups, etc.
  UNESCO, Karan, Ehala, Landweer
• Ability to use language for economic reasons
  presence or absence of the language in the public and business sectors, continuity or discontinuity of the majority language economy with the minority language economy.
  UNESCO, Landweer, Karan, Ehala. 
• Significance of Language to minority
  How important it is to them that the language continue on, any sentimental or nationalistic meaning for the language, whether the language makes a statement about specifically not belonging to the majority.
  UNESCO, Landweer, Karan, Ehala.