Appendix:Biblical Hebrew Swadesh list

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This is a Swadesh list of words in Biblical Hebrew, compared with definitions in 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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EnglishHebrew
edit (8)
1I (1sg)אֲנִי (ʾănî), אָנֹכִי (ʾānōḵî)
2you (2sg)אַתָּה (ʾattâ) (masculine), אַתְּ (ʾat) (feminine)
3he, she, it (3sg)הוּא (hūʾ) (masculine)
4we (1pl)אֲנַחְנוּ (ʾănáḥnû), אֲנוּ (ʾănû)
5you (2pl)אַתֶּם (ʾattem) (masculine), אַתֶּן (ʾatten) (feminine)
6they (3pl)הֵם (hēm) (masculine), הֵן (hēn) (feminine)
7thisזֶה () (masculine), זוֹ () (feminine), זֹאת (zōʾṯ) (feminine)
8thatהַהוּא (hahûʾ) (masculine), הַהִיא (hahîʾ) (feminine)
9here
10there
11who
12what
13where
14when
15how
16not
17all
18many
19some
20few
21other
22one
23two
24three
25four
26five
27big
28long
29wide
30thick
31heavy
32small
33short
34narrow
35thin
36woman
37man (adult male)
38man (human being)
39child
40wife
41husband
42mother
43father
44animal
45fish
46bird
47dog
48louse
49snake
50worm
51tree
52forest
53stick
54fruit
55seed
56leaf
57root
58bark (of a tree)
59flower
60grass
61rope
62skin
63meat
64blood
65bone
66fat (noun)
67egg
68horn
69tail
70feather
71hair
72head
73ear
74eye
75nose
76mouth
77tooth
78tongue (organ)
79fingernail
80foot
81leg
82knee
83hand
84wing
85belly
86guts
87neck
88back
89breast
90heart
91liver
92to drink
93to eat
94to bite
95to suck
96to spit
97to vomit
98to blow
99to breathe
100to laugh
101to see
102to hear
103to know
104to think
105to smell
106to fear
107to sleep
108to live
109to die
110to kill
111to fight
112to hunt
113to hit
114to cut
115to split
116to stab
117to scratch
118to dig
119to swim
120to fly
121to walk
122to come
123to lie (as in a bed)
124to sit
125to stand
126to turn (intransitive)
127to fall
128to give
129to hold
130to squeeze
131to rub
132to wash
133to wipe
134to pull
135to push
136to throw
137to tie
138to sew
139to count
140to say
141to sing
142to play
143to float
144to flow
145to freeze
146to swell
147sun
148moon
149star
150water
151rain
152river
153lake
154sea
155salt
156stone
157sand
158dust
159earth
160cloud
161fog
162sky
163wind
164snow
165ice
166smoke
167fire
168ash
169to burn
170road
171mountain
172red
173green
174yellow
175white
176black
177night
178day
179year
180warm
181cold
182full
183new
184old
185good
186bad
187rotten
188dirty
189straight
190round
191sharp (as a knife)
192dull (as a knife)
193smooth
194wet
195dry
196correct
197near
198far
199right
200left
201at
202in
203with
204and
205if
206because
207name
Swadesh lists
Individual languages
Language families, family branches, and geographic groupings
Constructed languages
Reconstructed proto-languages
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