Leipzig–Jakarta list
The Leipzig–Jakarta list of 100 words is used by
In the 1950s, the linguist Morris Swadesh published a list of 200 words called the Swadesh list, allegedly the 200 lexical concepts found in all languages that were least likely to be borrowed from other languages. Swadesh later whittled his list down to 100 items. The Swadesh list, however, was based mainly on intuition, according to Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor.[2]
The
A quarter of the words in the Leipzig–Jakarta list are body parts:
The items
List
Lexical items in the Leipzig–Jakarta list are ranked by semantic stability, i.e. words least likely to be replaced by other words as a language evolves.[5][6] The right two columns indicate inclusion on the 100-word and 207-word Swadesh lists.[7]
Rank | Word meaning | 100-word Swadesh list | 207-word Swadesh list |
---|---|---|---|
1 | fire | ✔ | ✔ |
2 | nose | ✔ | ✔ |
3 | to go | ||
4 | water | ✔ | ✔ |
5 | mouth | ✔ | ✔ |
6 | tongue | ✔ | ✔ |
7 | blood | ✔ | ✔ |
8 | bone | ✔ | ✔ |
9 | 2nd-person singular pronoun (you) | ✔ | ✔ |
10 | root | ✔ | ✔ |
11 | to come | ✔ | ✔ |
12 | breast | ✔ | ✔ |
13 | rain | ✔ | ✔ |
14 | 1st-person singular pronoun (I/me) | ✔ | ✔ |
15 | name | ✔ | ✔ |
16 | louse | ✔ | ✔ |
17 | wing | ✔ | |
18 | flesh/meat | ✔ | ✔ |
19 | arm/hand | ✔ | ✔ |
20 | fly | ✔ | |
21 | night | ✔ | ✔ |
22 | ear | ✔ | ✔ |
23 | neck | ✔ | ✔ |
24 | far | ✔ | |
25 | to do/make | ||
26 | house | ||
27 | stone/rock | ✔ | ✔ |
28 | bitter | ||
29 | to say | ✔ | ✔ |
30 | tooth | ✔ | ✔ |
31 | hair | ✔ | ✔ |
32 | big | ✔ | ✔ |
33 | one | ✔ | ✔ |
34 | who? | ✔ | ✔ |
35 | 3rd-person singular pronoun (he/she/it/him/her) | ||
36 | to hit/beat | ✔ | |
37 | leg/foot | ✔ | ✔ |
38 | horn | ✔ | ✔ |
39 | this | ✔ | ✔ |
40 | fish | ✔ | ✔ |
41 | yesterday | ||
42 | to drink | ✔ | ✔ |
43 | black | ✔ | ✔ |
44 | navel | ||
45 | to stand | ✔ | ✔ |
46 | to bite | ✔ | ✔ |
47 | back | ✔ | |
48 | wind | ✔ | |
49 | smoke | ✔ | ✔ |
50 | what? | ✔ | ✔ |
51 | child (kin term) | ✔ | |
52 | egg | ✔ | ✔ |
53 | to give | ✔ | ✔ |
54 | new | ✔ | ✔ |
55 | to burn (intr.) | ✔ | ✔ |
56 | not | ✔ | ✔ |
57 | good | ✔ | ✔ |
58 | to know | ✔ | ✔ |
59 | knee | ✔ | ✔ |
60 | sand | ✔ | ✔ |
61 | to laugh | ✔ | |
62 | to hear | ✔ | ✔ |
63 | soil | ✔ | ✔ |
64 | leaf | ✔ | ✔ |
65 | red | ✔ | ✔ |
66 | liver | ✔ | ✔ |
67 | to hide | ||
68 | skin/hide | ✔ | ✔ |
69 | to suck | ✔ | |
70 | to carry | ||
71 | ant | ||
72 | heavy | ✔ | |
73 | to take | ||
74 | old | ✔ | |
75 | to eat | ✔ | ✔ |
76 | thigh | ||
77 | thick | ✔ | |
78 | long | ✔ | ✔ |
79 | to blow | ✔ | |
80 | wood | ||
81 | to run | ||
82 | to fall | ✔ | |
83 | eye | ✔ | ✔ |
84 | ash | ✔ | ✔ |
85 | tail | ✔ | ✔ |
86 | dog | ✔ | ✔ |
87 | to cry/weep | ||
88 | to tie | ✔ | |
89 | to see | ✔ | ✔ |
90 | sweet | ||
91 | rope | ✔ | |
92 | shade/shadow | ||
93 | bird | ✔ | ✔ |
94 | salt | ✔ | |
95 | small | ✔ | ✔ |
96 | wide | ✔ | |
97 | star | ✔ | ✔ |
98 | in | ✔ | |
99 | hard | ||
100 | to crush/grind |
Other differences with the Swadesh list
Items on the 100-word Swadesh list but not on the Leipzig–Jakarta list:[7]
- all
- bark
- belly
- cloud
- cold
- die
- dry
- feather
- fingernail
- fly (verb)
- full
- grease
- green
- head
- heart
- hot
- kill
- lie
- man
- many
- moon
- mountain
- path
- person
- round
- seed
- sit
- sleep
- sun
- swim
- that
- tree
- two
- walk
- we
- white
- woman
- yellow
See also
- ASJP list
- Swadesh list
- Dolgopolsky list
- Comparative method
References
- ISBN 978-1-107-37702-8.
- ^ a b c Haspelmath & Tadmor, p. 72.
- ^ "The World Loanword Database (WOLD)". wold.clld.org. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
- ^ Haspelmath & Tadmor, p. 71.
- ^ The Leipzig-Jakarta List of Basic Vocabulary. Source: Haspelmath, Martin and Uri Tadmor (eds.), 2009. Loanwords in the World’s Languages: A Comparative Handbook. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
- ^ a b Haspelmath & Tadmor, p. 74.