Here is a Swadesh list of 207 words in English and Galician , including the International Phonetic Alphabet pronunciation.
Presentation [ edit ]
For further information, including the full final version of the list, read the Wikipedia article: Swadesh list .
At the end of the 1940s, new insights of radiocarbon dating became known to the public. Linguist Morris Swadesh believed that words decayed with age in a roughly similar way and therefore applied similar methods to determine the relationship of 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.
No. English Galician
1
I eu
2
you (singular)ti , vostede (formal)
3
he el
4
we nós
5
you (plural)vós , vostedes (formal)
6
they eles
7
this este
8
that ese
9
here aquí
10
there alí
11
who quen
12
what que
13
where onde
14
when cando
15
how como
16
not non
17
all todo
18
many moitos
19
some algún
20
few pouco
21
other outro
22
one un
23
two dous , dúas
24
three tres
25
four catro
26
five cinco
27
big grande
28
long longo
29
wide ancho
30
thick groso
31
heavy pesado
32
small pequeno
33
short curto
34
narrow estreito
35
thin delgado , fraco
36
woman muller
37
man (adult male)home
38
man (human being)home
39
child neno
40
wife esposa , muller
41
husband esposo , home , marido
42
mother nai , mai
43
father pai
44
animal animal
45
fish peixe
46
bird paxaro , ave
47
dog can
48
louse piollo
49
snake cobra , serpe
50
worm verme , miñoca
51
tree árbore
52
forest monte , bosque
53
stick pau , vara
54
fruit froito , froita
55
seed semente
56
leaf folla
57
root raíz
58
bark (of a tree)casca , cortiza
59
flower flor
60
grass herba
61
rope corda
62
skin pel
63
meat carne
64
blood sangue
65
bone óso
66
fat (noun)graxa
67
egg ovo
68
horn corno
69
tail rabo
70
feather pluma
71
hair pelo
72
head cabeza
73
ear orella
74
eye ollo
75
nose nariz
76
mouth boca
77
tooth dente
78
tongue (organ)lingua
79
fingernail uña
80
foot pé
81
leg perna
82
knee xeonllo
83
hand man
84
wing á
85
belly barriga
86
guts tripas
87
neck pescozo
88
back lombo , costas
89
breast pecho
90
heart corazón
91
liver fígado
92
to drink
beber
93
to eat
comer
94
to bite
morder
95
to suck
chupar
96
to spit
cuspir
97
to vomit
vomitar
98
to blow
soprar
99
to breathe
respirar
100
to laugh
rir
101
to see
ver
102
to hear
oír
103
to know
saber
104
to think
pensar
105
to smell
cheirar
106
to fear
temer
107
to sleep
durmir
108
to live
vivir
109
to die
morrer
110
to kill
matar
111
to fight
loitar
112
to hunt
cazar
113
to hit
bater
114
to cut
cortar
115
to split
partir
116
to stab
apuñalar
117
to scratch
rabuñar
118
to dig
cavar
119
to swim
nadar
120
to fly
voar
121
to walk
andar , camiñar
122
to come
vir
123
to lie (as in a bed)
estar deitado
124
to sit
sentar
125
to stand
erguerse (action) , estar de pé (state)
126
to turn (intransitive)
virar
127
to fall
caer
128
to give
dar
129
to hold
soster , termar
130
to squeeze
apertar
131
to rub
fretar
132
to wash
lavar
133
to wipe
limpar
134
to pull
tirar
135
to push
puxar
136
to throw
tirar
137
to tie
atar
138
to sew
coser
139
to count
contar
140
to say
dicir
141
to sing
cantar
142
to play
xogar
143
to float
flotar , aboiar
144
to flow
fluír
145
to freeze
conxelar , xear
146
to swell
inchar
147
sun sol
148
moon lúa
149
star estrela
150
water auga
151
rain chuvia
152
river río
153
lake lago
154
sea mar
155
salt sal
156
stone pedra
157
sand area
158
dust po
159
earth terra
160
cloud nube
161
fog néboa
162
sky ceo
163
wind vento
164
snow neve
165
ice xeo
166
smoke fume
167
fire lume
168
ash cinza
169
to burn
queimar
170
road estrada
171
mountain montaña
172
red vermello
173
green verde
174
yellow amarelo
175
white branco
176
black negro
177
night noite
178
day día
179
year ano
180
warm quente
181
cold frío
182
full cheo
183
new novo
184
old vello
185
good bo
186
bad malo
187
rotten podre
188
dirty lixoso
189
straight recto
190
round redondo
191
sharp (as a knife)afiado
192
dull (as a knife)mocho
193
smooth suave
194
wet mollado
195
dry seco
196
correct correcto
197
near preto
198
far lonxe
199
right dereita
200
left esquerda
201
at en
202
in en
203
with con
204
and e
205
if se
206
because porque
207
name nome
When the words have various forms (verbs conjugation, gender and number agreement, declensions), the orthography is the following :
verbs : infinitive
other words : masculine, singular, nominative (subject)
For specific cases (no infinitive, feminine name, plural name for instance), the simplest form is used.
Swadesh lists
Individual languages
Afrikaans – Albanian – Antillean Creole – Arabic (standard) (p) , Egyptian Arabic (p) , Palestinian Arabic (p) , Tunisian Arabic (t) – Armenian (t,p) – Aromanian – Bangala – Bashkir – Basque – Belarusian – Breton – Bulgarian (t) – Burmese (t,p) – Catalan – Chechen – Chinese: Cantonese , Gan (p) , Mandarin (t,p) , Min Nan (Amoy) (p) , Old Chinese (p) – Czech – Danish – Dutch (p) – Egyptian (Middle) – Esperanto (p) – Estonian – Finnish – Fiji Hindi – Fijian – French (p) – French (old) – Frisian (West) – Friulian – Georgian (t,p) – German (p) – Greek (modern) (p) , Greek (ancient) – Guaraní – Haida – Haitian Creole – Hausa – Hawaiian – Hindi (t) – Hittite – Hmong (White) (p) – Hungarian – Icelandic – Indonesian – Interlingue – Irish (p) – Istro-Romanian – Italian (p) – Japanese (t) – Kashubian – Khmer (p) – Korean (t) – Kurdish – Latin – Latvian – Lingala – Lingua Franca Nova – Lithuanian – Luwian – Macedonian (t) – Malagasy – Malay – Maltese – Megleno-Romanian – Mongolian (t) – Old Portuguese (p) – Ossetian (p) – Polish (p) – Portuguese (p) – Proto-Indo-European – Proto-Slavic – Purepecha – Quechua – Romani – Romanian – Russian (p) – Sanskrit (t) – Scottish Gaelic – Serbo-Croatian – Sinhalese – Slovenian – Spanish (p) – Sranan – Sundanese – Swahili – Swedish – Tagalog – Tajik (t) – Tahitian – Thai (t) – Tocharian B – Tok Pisin – Turkish – Ukrainian – Vietnamese – Walloon – Zulu
Language families and family branches
Afro-Asiatic – Algonquian – Altaic – Araucanian – Austro-Asiatic – Australian – Austronesian – Baltic – Baltic-Finnic – Bantu – Celtic – Dené–Yeniseian – Dravidian – Formosan – Frisian – Germanic – Hmong-Mien – Hokan – Iberian – Indo-Aryan – Indo-Iranian – Indo-Iranian (extended) – Italian – Mayan – Muskogean – Niger–Congo – Oto-Manguean – Paleosiberian – Penutian – Romance – Sino-Tibetan – Slavic – Siouan – Tai–Kadai – Tibeto-Burman – Tupi–Guarani – Turkic – Uralic – Uto-Aztecan
The list may also include: (t) the transcription in Latin characters; (p) the phonetic transcription
