Oriya Morphology

Oriya morphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of morphemes and other units of meaning in the Oriya language. Morphemes (called ରୁପିମ in Oriya and pronounced Rüpémë) are the smallest units of the Oriya language that carry and convey a unique meaning and is grammatically appropriate. A morpheme in Oriya (Termed as: ରୁପିମ) is the most minuscule meaningful constituent which combines and synthesizes the phonemes into a meaningful expression through its (morpheme's) form & structure. Thus, in essence, the morpheme is a structural combination of phonemes in Oriya. In other words, in Oriya language, the morpheme is a combination of sounds that possess and convey a meaning. A morpheme is not necessarily a meaningful word in Oriya. In Oriya, every morpheme is either a base or an affix (prefix or a suffix).

The combination of one or multiple morphemes lead to construction of a word. Morphemes are the smallest units of sentence analysis (Syntax) and include root words, prefixes, suffixes, and verb endings.

The current approach to Oriya morphology treat morphology and morphemes as the basic rules involving the linguistic context, rather than as isolated pieces of linguistic matter. In context of semantics (Analysis of Meaning), the approach is that:

1. Meaning is linked to segmented phonological units, with influences of tone and/or stress;
2. Meaning of a morpheme with a given form varies on account of its immediate usage environment.