Most complex IE language (Morphologically)

Guest   Mon Dec 10, 2007 1:41 pm GMT
Chinese is morphologically even simpler than English. From what I've heard words barely change their form at all.
Guest   Mon Dec 10, 2007 2:20 pm GMT
Stewart
What about learning some good books of linguistics instead of writing bullshit in this forum?
Guest   Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:58 pm GMT
In my view Icelandic, Lithuanian, Croatian, Portuguese
Guest   Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:38 pm GMT
Portuguese? I don't think so. It has no more cases than English. Verb conjugation is complex of course, but similar to the other Romance languages I believe. But noun declination is minimal.
Guest   Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:49 pm GMT
Romance languages don't have noun clases. English still has some remanents: -less , 's, ...
Guest   Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:49 am GMT
Portuguese has the most complicated verbal system amongst European languages. Besides it retains the noun gender unlike English
Linguist   Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:03 am GMT
Probably Sanskrit? But as it's a dead language, shall we count it? and of course I agree about Lithuanian.
Guest   Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:41 am GMT
Русский
Guest   Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:02 am GMT
Russkie glagoly ochen' ljogkie
Guest   Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:55 pm GMT
Tvoja mat' ochen' ljokaja.
Guest   Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:10 pm GMT
togda tvoja mat' suka
Guest   Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:20 pm GMT
Tvoja mat' i moja mat', odna i ta zhe suka! Da, moja mat' suka, nu i chto? Ona soset moj huj kazhdyj den'.
todosmentira   Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:20 pm GMT
Can we charactize morphological complexity as the total number of morphemes, or the number of different functions that one morpheme can perform?

For example, in Albanian the morpheme 'e' can be:

the conjunction: and
a clitic showing a direct object
a particle linking an adjective to a singular feminine noun
a particle linking an adjective to a singular accusative noun of either gender
a particle linking an adjective to a plural definite noun in accusative or nominative

would it be more, or less complex if there were a separate morpheme for each of the above?
todosmentira   Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:29 pm GMT
edit:

e

it can also be a particle showing a possessive pronoun for which the referent is plural, nominative/accusative, of either gender.
Guest   Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:29 pm GMT
Albanian is much easier compared to other European languages