In the isolating type the formula of a word is simply R, and that of a sentence R+R+R, &c., where R stands for “root.” If we represent by r those roots whose sense has become obscured so as to pass into the state of prefixes and suffixes significant only of relationship between other words, we shall have a formula of agglutination, Rr, Rrr, rR, rRr, &c. Lastly, the essence of an inflecting language consists in the power of a root to express, by modification of its own form, its various relations to other roots. Not that the roots of all words are necessarily modified; for they often remain as they do in agglutinating tongues. But they may be modified, and “languages in which relations may be thus expressed, not only by suffixes and prefixes, but also by a modification of the form of the roots, are inflectional languages.” Therefore, if we represent this power of inflectional change on the part of the root itself by the symbol x, the agglutinating formula Rr may become Rxr. Moreover, the modifying elements may also be inflected, words thus yielding such formulæ as Rrx, Rrrx, &c.
Such, then, are the three main groups or orders of language. But in addition to them we must notice three others, which have been shown to be clearly separable. These three additional groups are the Polysynthetic, the Incorporating, and the Analytic.
The Polysynthetic (= Incapsulating) order is found among certain savages, especially on the continent of America, where, according to Duponceau, more or less distinctive adherence to this type is to be met with from Greenland to Chili. The peculiarity of such languages consists in the indefinite composition of words by syncope and ellipsis. That is to say, sentences are formed by the running together of compound words of inordinate length, and in the process of fusion the constituent words are so much abbreviated as often to be represented by no more than a single intercalated letter. For example, the Greenland aulisariartorasuarpok, “he-hastened-to-go-afishing,” is made up of aulisar, “to fish,” peartor, “to be engaged in anything,” pinnesuarpok, “he hastens:” and the Chippeway totoccabo, “wine,” is formed of toto, “milk,” with chominabo, “a bunch of grapes.” Thus, polysynthesis consists of fusion with contraction, some of the component words losing their first, and others their last syllables. Moreover, composition of this kind further differs from that which occurs in many other types of language (e.g. our adjectival never-to-be-forgotten), in that the constituent parts may never have attained the rank of independent words, which can be set apart and employed by themselves.
The Incorporating order is merely a subdivision of the agglutinative, and represents an earlier stage of it, wherein the speakers had not yet begun to analyze their sentences, and so still retain in their sentences subordinate words in cumbersome variety, as, for example, “House-I-it-built;” “They-have-them-their-books.”
Again, the Analytic order is merely a subdivision of the inflectional, and represents a later stage of it. “One by one the grammatical relations implied in an inflectional compound are brought out into full relief, and provided with special forms in which to be expressed.” Thus, in English, for example, inflections have largely given place to the use of “auxiliary” words, whereby most of the advantages of refined distinction are retained, while the machinery of expression is considerably simplified.
So that, on the whole, we may classify the Language-kingdom thus:—
Order I. Isolating.
Order II. Agglutinative: (Sub-orders, Polysynthetic and Incorporating).
Order III. Inflectional: (Sub-order, Analytic).
In the opinion of some philologists, however, the Polysynthetic type deserves to be regarded, not as a sub-order of the Agglutinative, but as itself independent of all the other three, and therefore constituting a fourth order. Thus, on the one hand, we have it said that polysynthetic languages must “simply be placed last in the ascending order of the agglutinating series;”[151] while, on the other hand, it is said, “the conception of the sentence that underlies the polysynthetic dialects is the precise converse of that which underlies the isolating or the agglutinative types; the several ideas into which the sentence may be analyzed, instead of being made equal or independent, are combined, like a piece of mosaic, into a single whole.”[152]