A language is isolating or analytic when there are no inflections, i.e. when words can only be made out of one morpheme (morphemes and words are then the same). In theory, one morpheme only has one signification or grammatical function and it is, still in theory, syntactically independent.<\/p>\n
For instance, let\u2019s have a look at this Chinese sentence:<\/p>\n
n\u01d0 ch\u012b f\u00e0n le ma<\/strong> which could be translated as:
\nn\u01d0<\/strong>: 2nd person singular \u201cyou\u201d
\nch\u012b<\/strong>: \u201ceat\u201d
\nf\u00e0n<\/strong>: literally \u201ccooked rice\u201d, which is a prototype for \u201cfood\u201d
\nle<\/strong>: final realization particle
\nma<\/strong>: particle marker of a question
\nIt could also be translated as \u201cdid you eat (something)?\u201d or \u201chave you already eaten?\u201d.
\nChinese will also say:
\nw\u01d2 ch\u012b f\u00e0n le:<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019ve eaten\u201d, where w\u01d2 is the first person singular
\nt\u0101 ch\u012b f\u00e0n le<\/strong>: \u201che\/she ate\u201d with t\u0101 as the third person, and so on.
\nChinese is often taken as an example when talking about isolating languages, but many more languages can be considered as such. Most of South-East Asian languages and most of creole languages also fall into this category.
\nNote: a language is rarely \u201cexclusively\u201d isolating because it often presents morphology embryos. It is in fact the case for Chinese.