Basic vocabulary

Basic vocabulary is a concept that is frequently encountered in __.

Lists for historical comparison

Swadesh-50 list

Distinct "stability quotients" have been determined for each of the Swadesh-100 entries by Sergei Starostin. On this basis, George Starostin proposes establishing a shortened version of the list for surveying the genetical affiliation of languages. For reasons of practicality, he excludes also a number of relatively stable word roots that show other issues:

• the pronouns "this" and "that": the structure of demonstrative pronoun systems in the world's languages may vary, and short monosyllabic demonstrative roots are prone to accidental similarities
• 'liver', a word frequently unrecorded in superficial surveys
• 'fish', a concept frequently unknown in desert communities
• 'neck', "breast": prone to sound-symbolism and polysemy (versus "throat" and "chest")
• 'full', "stand", "give": prone to synonymy

These nine words are substituted with three body parts ('foot', 'horn', 'head'), two universal food items ('meat', 'egg'), two semantically better-defined verbs ('to kill', 'to hear') as well as 'black', 'night'.

Yakhontov list

A brief 35-word list developed by Sergei Yakhontov that was used by the Russian Nostratics school as a preliminary approximation of the stablest basic vocabulary, prior to the development of the Swadesh-50 list.

Comparison

Abbreviations:

• #: Stability index per Starostin for the Sw100 list
• LJ: the Leipzig-Jakarta list
• Sw50, 100, 200: various versions of the Swadesh list
• Y: the Yakhontov list

Lexeme	Semantic area	#	LJ	Sw50	Sw100	Sw200	Y
we	pronoun	1		√	√
two	numeral	2		√	√		√
I	pronoun	3	√	√	√		√
eye	body part	4	√	√	√		√
thou	pronoun	5	√	√	√		√
who	pronoun	6	√	√	√		√
fire	substance	7	√	√	√		√
tongue	body part	8	√	√	√		√
stone (/rock)	substance	9	√	√	√		√
name	social	10	√	√	√		√
hand (/arm)	body part	11	√	√	√		√
what	pronoun	12	√	√	√		√
to die	verb	13		√	√		√
heart	body part	14		√	√
to drink	verb: action	15	√	√	√
dog	animal	16	√	√	√		√
louse	animal	17	√	√	√		√
moon	celestial	18		√	√		√
fingernail	body part	19		√	√
blood	tissue	20	√	√	√		√
one	numeral	21	√	√	√		√
tooth	body part	22	√	√	√		√
new	adjective	23	√	√	√		√
dry	adjective	24		√	√
liver	body part	25	√		√
to eat	verb: action	26	√	√	√
tail	body part	27	√	√	√		√
this	pronoun	28	√		√		√
head hair	tissue	29	√	√	√
water	substance	30	√	√	√		√
nose	body part	31	√	√	√		√
not		32	√	√	√
mouth	body part	33	√	√	√
full	adjective	34			√		√
ear	body part	35	√	√	√		√
that	pronoun	36			√
bird	animal	37	√	√	√
bone	tissue	38	√	√	√		√
sun	celestial	39		√	√		√
smoke	substance	40	√	√	√
to stand	verb	41	√		√
tree	plant	42		√	√
ashes	substance	43	√	√	√
to give	verb: action	44	√		√		√
rain		45	√	√	√
star	celestial	46	√	√	√
fish	animal	47	√		√		√
neck	body part	48	√		√
breast	body part	49	√		√
leaf	plant	50	√	√	√
to come	verb: motion	51	√		√
to kill	verb: action	52		√	√
foot (/leg)	body part	53	√	√	√
to sit	verb	54			√
root	plant	55	√		√
horn	body part	56	√	√	√		√
to fly	verb: motion	57	√		√
to hear	verb: perception	58	√	√	√
skin (/hide)	body part / tissue	59	√		√
long	adjective	60	√		√
meat (food)	substance / tissue	61	√	√	√
road		62			√
to know	verb	63	√		√		√
to say	verb	64	√		√
egg		65	√	√	√		√
seed	plant	66			√
knee	body part	67	√		√
black	adjective	68	√	√	√
head	body part	69		√	√
to sleep	verb	70			√
to burn (itr.)	verb	71	√		√
earth		72			√
feather		73			√
to swim	verb	74			√
white	adjective	75			√
to bite	verb: action	76	√		√
fat	tissue	77			√
man	social	78			√
person	social	79			√
all		80			√
night		81	√	√	√
to see	verb: perception	82	√		√
to walk/go	verb: motion	83	√		√
warm	adjective	84			√
red	adjective	85	√		√
cold	adjective	86			√
woman	social	87			√
round	adjective	88			√
yellow	adjective	89			√
lie	verb	90			√
green	adjective	91			√
cloud	celestial	92			√
big	adjective	93	√		√
tree bark	plant	94	√		√
sand	substance	95	√		√
good	adjective	96	√		√
many	adjective	97			√
mountain		98			√
belly	body part	99			√
small	adjective	100	√		√
salt	substance	-	√				√
wind		-	√				√
year		-					√
ant	animal	-	√
back	body/spatial??	-	√
bitter	adjective	-	√
to blow	verb	-	√
to carry	verb	-	√
child	social	-	√
to crush/grind	verb: action	-	√
to cry/weep	verb	-	√
to do/make	verb	-	√
to fall	verb: motion	-	√
far	adjective	-	√
hard	adjective	-	√
3PS	pronoun	-	√
heavy	adjective	-	√
to hide	verb: action	-	√
to hit/beat	verb: action	-	√
house		-	√
in	preposition	-	√
to laugh	verb	-	√
navel	body part	-	√
old	adjective	-	√
rope		-	√
to run	verb: motion	-	√
shade/shadow		-	√
soil	substance	-	√
to suck	verb	-	√
sweet	adjective	-	√
to take	verb: action	-	√
thick	adjective	-	√
thigh	body part	-	√
to tie	verb: action	-	√
wide	adjective	-	√
wood	substance	-	√
yesterday		-	√