fusional language

A type of language in which words contain several features of meaning that cannot be identified in a one-to-one way with the sequence of forms which make up the words; also known as inflecting languages. For example, in the Latin dominus (‘lord’), the suffix -us ‘fuses’ the meanings of ‘masculine’, ‘nominative’, and ‘singular’.

A fusional language (also called inflecting language) is a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by its tendency to "squish together" many morphemes in a way which can be difficult to segment.

The canonical examples of fusional languages are Latin and German;

A feature that distinguishes fusional languages from agglutinating ones is the occurrence of irregular forms: this could not or hardly happen in agglutinating language since the synthetic elements retain a meaning of their own. Fusional languages are generally believed to have descended from agglutinating languages, though there is no linguistic evidence in the form of attested language changes to confirm this view. The definite article, for example is declined in the following fashion:-

Nominative: der (masculine) die (feminine) das (neuter) die (plural)

Accusative: den (masculine) die (feminine) das (neuter) die (plural)

Genative: des (masculine) der (feminine) des (neuter) der (plural)

Dative: dem (masculine) der (feminine) dem (neuter) den (plural)

Adjectives are also declined accordingly to the gender of the noun they describe, whether it is preceded by a definite article (weak declension), indefinite article (mixed declension) or no article (strong declension).

Example: Der Hamster (masculine noun, nominative case) Des Hamsters (masculine noun, genative case) Adding an adjective klein ("little"):- Ein kleiner Hamster = "a little hamster" (mixed declension, nominative case) Der kleine Hamster = "the little hamster" (weak declension, nominative case) Ich sah den kleinen Hamster = "I saw the little hamster" (weak declension, accusative case) Mit kleinem Hamster = "with little hamster" (no article;