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A Swadesh list is a tool of glottochronology, proposed by Morris Swadesh. It is a list of 100 (or 200) prescribed items of basic vocabulary in two or more related languages. The closeness of the relationship of the languages is suggested to be roughly proportional to the number of cognate words present in the list. The reason that a fixed set of concept is used, rather than a list of arbitrary words, is that the basic vocabulary learned during early childhood is assumed to change very slowly over time. Note that the task of counting the number of cognate words in the list is far from trivial, and may be subjected to dispute, because cognates do not necessarily look similar, and recognition of cognates presupposes knowledge of the sound laws of the respective languages. For example, Greek galaktos and English milk are cognates, although they are not recognizable as such without knowledge of the history of both languages. Also, even in cases where the number of cognates is undisputed, use of Swadesh lists for dating is disputed, because of the underlying assumption that the rate of replacement of basic vocabulary is constant over long periods of time. While Swadesh lists are a useful tool to get a rough idea, mainstream historical linguistics is usually very sceptical about claims of relatedness based on Swadesh lists exclusively.
A recent example of the use of Swadesh lists for absolute dating is the study of Gray and Atkinson (2003), calculating a tree of Indo-European with absolute dates for its nodes, using Bayesian principles, dating the Proto-Indo-European language to ca. 7000 BC. The study is based on Swadesh lists of modern Indo-European languages (and three extinct languages) alone, and its result is not generally accepted to contain any degree of accuracy.
Although the use of the Swadesh list for absolute dating remains controversial, it has gained popularity in the field of translation in defining core concepts that are universal to all human languages.
Swadesh list in English
- I
- you (singular)
- he
- we
- you (plural)
- they
- this
- that
- here
- there
- who
- what
- where
- when
- how
- not
- all
- many
- some
- few
- other
- one
- two
- three
- four
- five
- big
- long
- wide
- thick
- heavy
- small
- short
- narrow
- thin
- woman
- man
- person
- child
- wife
- husband
- mother
- father
- animal
- fish
- bird
- dog
- louse
- snake
- worm
- tree
- forest
- stick
- fruit
- seed
- leaf
- root
- bark
- flower
- grass
- rope
- skin
- meat
- blood
- bone
- fat (n.)
- egg
- horn
- tail
- feather
- hair
- head
- ear
- eye
- nose
- mouth
- tooth
- tongue
- fingernail
- foot
- leg
- knee
- hand
- wing
- belly
- guts
- neck
- back
- breast
- heart
- liver
- drink
- eat
- bite
- suck
- spit
- vomit
- blow
- breathe
- laugh
- see
- hear
- know
- think
- smell
- fear
- sleep
- live
- die
- kill
- fight
- hunt
- hit
- cut
- split
- stab
- scratch
- dig
- swim
- fly (v.)
- walk
- come
- lie
- sit
- stand
- turn
- fall
- give
- hold
- squeeze
- rub
- wash
- wipe
- pull
- push
- throw
- tie
- sew
- count
- say
- sing
- play
- float
- flow
- freeze
- swell
- sun
- moon
- star
- water
- rain
- river
- lake
- sea
- salt
- stone
- sand
- dust
- earth
- cloud
- fog
- sky
- wind
- snow
- ice
- smoke
- fire
- ashes
- burn
- road
- mountain
- red
- green
- yellow
- white
- black
- night
- day
- year
- warm
- cold
- full
- new
- old
- good
- bad
- rotten
- dirty
- straight
- round
- sharp
- dull
- smooth
- wet
- dry
- correct
- near
- far
- right
- left
- at
- in
- with
- and
- if
- because
- name
See also
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