A Swadesh list is a tool of glottochronology, proposed by Morris Swadesh (1950). It is a list of prescribed items of basic vocabulary (variously featuring 100, 200 or 207 items) 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, English 'wheel' and Hindi 'cakka' 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.
The use of Swadesh lists in glottochronology was most popular during the 1960s and 1970s, after which enthusiasm waned and the discussion of the method's merit became emotional, leading to a temporary demise of the method. Refinements since the early 1970s include the incorporation of a geographical dimension into the equations, accounting for borrowing. 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 (see Indo-Hittite). 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.
References
- Morris Swadesh, Salish internal relationships, International Journal of American Linguistics 16 (1950), 157–167.
- Russell D. Gray & Quentin D. Atkinson, Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin, Nature Vol. 426, 27 November 2003. [1]
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
