Glossary of Linguistic Terms

Isolating Language

Definition: 

An isolating language is a language in which almost every word consists of a single morpheme.

Discussion: 

Isolating languages are especially common in Southeast Asia.

Examples: 

(Vietnamese)

 

khi tôi dên nhà ban tôi, chúng tôi bát dâu làm bài.

when I come house friend I Plural I begin do lesson

When I came to my friend's house, we began to do lessons.
See Also: 
Polysynthetic Language
Also Known As: 
Analytic language
Source: 
Comrie 1989
43

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library. Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003.

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