Appendix:Oceanic Swadesh lists

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This is a Swadesh list of Oceanic languages, specifically Hawaiian, Maori, Tahitian, Tuvaluan, Fijian and Big Nambas, compared with that of English.

Presentation

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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.

List

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This list is currently incomplete: You can help by expanding it.

English Hawaiian
ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
Maori
Māori
Tahitian
Mā’ohi
Tuvaluan
te ggana tuvalu
Fijian
na vosa vaka Viti
Big Nambas
V'ənen Taut
1 I au ahau, au au, vau au, aku
kita (affective, i.e. poor me)
au (subject), o yau kana
2 you
(singular)
ʻoe koe 'oe koe
kita (affective, i.e. poor me)
o (subject), o iko nakəm
3 he ʻo ia, ʻoia, ia, ʻoia nei, ʻoia ala ia 'oia, 'ōna ia e (subject), o koya hin
4 we kāua (dual, incl.)
kākou (pl., incl.)
māua (dual, excl.)
mākou (pl., excl.)
tāua
tātou
māua
mātou
tātou (inclusive)
mātou (exclusive)
tāua (dual inclusive)
tātou (plural inclusive)
māua (dual exclusive)
mātou (plural exclusive)
keirau (dual, exclusive)
keitou (paucal, exclusive)
keimami (plural, exclusive)
(e)daru, o kēdaru (dual, inclusive)
(da)tou, o kedatou (paucal, inclusive)
(e)da, o keda (plural, inclusive)
nakəd (inclusive)
kam'em' (exclusive)
5 you
(plural)
ʻolua (dual)
ʻoukou (pl.)
koutou 'outou koulua (dual), koutou (plural) (o)drau, o kemudrau (dual)
(o)dou, o kemudou (paucal)
(o), o kemunī (plural)
kam'i
6 they lāua (dual)
lākou (pl.)
rātou rātou lāua (dual), lātou (plural) (e)rau, o rau (dual)
(e)ratou, o iratou (paucal)
(e)ra, o ira (plural)
hir
7 this kēia, ia, ʻoia, nei, neia tēnei teie tēnei (close to the speaker) laha
8 that kēnā, ; kēlā, , ia tēnā, tērā terā tēnā (close to the person spoken to)
tēlā (away from both)
qori (near you)
(over there)
lara
9 here maʻaneʻi, eia nei konei iho nei (i) konei (close to the speaker)
atka
10 there laila, malaila, i laila konā, korā iho na (i) konā (close to the person spoken to)
(i) kolā (away from both)
keri, qori (near you)
keā, (far from you)
lera
11 who wai, ʻo wai, na wai wai vai (interrogative) ko oi (interrogative) cei ak
12 what aha, he aha, pehea aha aha (interrogative) ā (interrogative) cava v'ata
13 where aia i hea, ʻauhea, ai hea hea teihea (no movement, interrogative) tēfea (interrogative, singular)
kofea (non-singular)
vei ip'i
14 when ināhea ahea, nōhea ahea (interrogative) anafea (interrogative, in the past)
māfea (interrogative, in the future)
ni v'aran
15 how pehea pēhea nāhea (interrogative) pēfea (interrogative) vakacava -
16 not ʻaʻole kāore, kīhai 'eiaha sega ni -a-
-ah- (negative prefix)
17 all āpau, pauloa, pau, papau
like ʻole, puni, holoʻokoʻa, paunui
katoa ana'e katoa kece, taucoko ar-, udlani
18 many nui, lau maha rahi uke (e) levu na nelnal
19 some kākaʻikahi ētahi nau, tau nīsi (i.e. some other) (e) sō na kinkin
20 few kākaʻikahi, wahi, kekahi, ʻuʻuku, liʻiliʻi ruarua, torutoru ma'a nāi, , , sē uke (e) lailai na -
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