In
linguistic typology,
polysynthetic languages are highly
synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which
words are composed of many
morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able to stand alone). Polysynthetic languages typically have long "sentence-words" such as the
Yupik word
tuntussuqatarniksaitengqiggtuq which means "He had not yet said again that he was going to hunt reindeer." The word consists of the morphemes
tuntu-ssur-qatar-ni-ksaite-ngqiggte-uq with the meanings, reindeer-hunt-future-say-negation-again-third.person.singular.indicative; and except for the morpheme
tuntu "reindeer", none of the other morphemes can appear in isolation.