For further information, including the full final version of the list, read the Wikipedia article: Swadesh list .American linguist Morris Swadesh believed that languages changed at measurable rates and that these could be determined even for languages without written precursors. Using vocabulary lists, he sought to understand not only change over time but also the relationships of extant languages. To be able to compare languages from different cultures, he based his lists on meanings he presumed would be available in as many cultures as possible. He then used the fraction of agreeing cognates between any two related languages to compute their divergence time by some (still debated) algorithms. Starting in 1950 with 165 meanings, his list grew to 215 in 1952, which was so expansive that many languages lacked native vocabulary for some terms. Subsequently, it was reduced to 207, and reduced much further to 100 meanings in 1955. A reformulated list was published posthumously in 1971.
№ English Tok Pisintok pisin edit (200) 1 I (1sg )mi 2 you (2sg )yu 3 he , she , it (3sg )em 4 we (1pl )yumi inclusive mipela exclusive 5 you (2pl )yupela 6 they (3pl )ol 7 this dispela 8 that dispela 9 here hia 10 there long hap 11 who husat interrogative em demonstrative 12 what wanem 13 where we westap wanem ples 14 when wanem taim 15 how olsem wanem 16 not no 17 all olgeta 18 many planti 19 some sampela 20 few liklik 21 other narapela arapela 22 one wan wanpela 23 two tu tupela 24 three tri tripela 25 four fo fopela 26 five faiv faipela 27 big bikpela 28 long longpela 29 wide brait 30 thick strong 31 heavy hevi 32 small liklik 33 short sotpela 34 narrow no brait 35 thin bun nating 36 woman meri 37 man (adult male)man 38 man (human being)man manmeri 39 child pikinini 40 wife meri 41 husband man maritman 42 mother mama 43 father papa 44 animal animal abus 45 fish pis 46 bird pisin 47 dog dok 48 louse laus 49 snake snek 50 worm liklik snek 51 tree diwai dawai 52 forest bus 53 stick han bilong diwai 54 fruit pikinini bilong diwai prut 55 seed 56 leaf lip 57 root kil 58 bark (of a tree)skin bilong diwai 59 flower plaua 60 grass gras 61 rope rop lain 62 skin skin 63 meat mit 64 blood blut 65 bone bun 66 fat (noun)gris 67 egg kiau 68 horn hon 69 tail tel 70 feather gras bilong pisin 71 hair gras 72 head het 73 ear ia yau 74 eye ai 75 nose nus 76 mouth maut 77 tooth tit 78 tongue (organ)tang 79 fingernail kapa bilong pinga 80 foot put 81 leg lek 82 knee skru 83 hand han 84 wing han bilong pisin 85 belly bel 86 guts ol samting insait long bodi 87 neck nek 88 back bak 89 breast susu 90 heart pam 91 liver liva 92 to drink dringim 93 to eat kaikaim 94 to bite kaikaim 95 to suck susu 96 to spit spet 97 to vomit traut 98 to blow winim 99 to breathe pulim win 100 to laugh lap 101 to see lukim 102 to hear harim 103 to know save 104 to think tingting 105 to smell smelim 106 to fear i pret long 107 to sleep slip 108 to live i gat laip 109 to die dai 110 to kill kilim 111 to fight pait paitim 112 to hunt ranim 113 to hit paitim 114 to cut katim 115 to split katim long hap 116 to stab 117 to scratch 118 to dig digim 119 to swim swim 120 to fly flai 121 to walk wokabaut 122 to come kam 123 to lie (as in a bed) slip 124 to sit sindaun 125 to stand sanap 126 to turn (intransitive) tanim 127 to fall pundaun 128 to give givim gipim 129 to hold holim 130 to squeeze krungutim 131 to rub pilim 132 to wash waswas wasim 133 to wipe waipim 134 to pull pulim 135 to push subim 136 to throw tromoi 137 to tie nektait 138 to sew samapim 139 to count kaunim 140 to say tok 141 to sing singsing 142 to play pilai 143 to float plot 144 to flow 145 to freeze 146 to swell solap 147 sun san 148 moon mun 149 star sta 150 water wara 151 rain ren 152 river wara 153 lake raunwara 154 sea solwara 155 salt sol 156 stone ston 157 sand das 158 dust das 159 earth graun 160 cloud klaut 161 fog sno 162 sky skai 163 wind win 164 snow ais 165 ice ais 166 smoke smok 167 fire paia 168 ash sit bilong paia 169 to burn paia 170 road rot 171 mountain maunten 172 red retpela 173 green grinpela 174 yellow yelopela 175 white waitpela 176 black blakpela 177 night nait 178 day de 179 year yia 180 warm hotpela 181 cold kolpela 182 full pulap 183 new nupela 184 old olpela lapun 185 good gutpela 186 bad nogut 187 rotten nogut 188 dirty nogut i gat das 189 straight stretpela 190 round raunpela 191 sharp (as a knife)sapela 192 dull (as a knife)193 smooth stretpela 194 wet wet 195 dry drai 196 correct 197 near klosap 198 far longwe 199 right raithan 200 left lephan kais 201 at long 202 in long 203 with wantaim 204 and na 205 if sapos 206 because long wanem bikos 207 name nem
Swadesh lists
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Language families, family branches, and geographic groupings
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