Simply begin typing or use the editing tools above to add to
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modifications will be sent to our editors for review. ...units
that compose such a word are “bound” forms (i.e., cannot be used
except in conjunction with other elements within a word), the
process has gone beyond agglutination and is called
polysynthesis, a process characteristic of many American Indian
languages. Some Hokan languages are extremely polysynthetic,
among them the Yana language of northern California. The Yana
word... Like many American Indian languages, the Macro-
Algonquian languages are polysynthetic in their structure; that
is, they form words out of many so-called bound elements (which
may not be used except in combination with other such elements),
which serve as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Thus, a
single Algonquian word may carry the meaning of an entire
sentence in English. These languages... Characteristic of many
American Indian languages is a polysynthetic