Re: Basic vocabulary when starting a conlang

Tim May writes:
 > Roberto Suarez Soto writes:
 >  >         What do you think is the basic vocabulary to start a conlang?
 >  >
 >  >         I was thinking that there are a few verbs that, because of its
 >  > everyday use or significance, should be the first to be "created": to
 >  > be, to have, to live, to die, to go, to come. There should also be a few
 >  > basic words, as: man, woman, child, life, death, sky, earth, water,
 >  > fire, god. And of course, the basic personal pronouns: I, you,
 >  > he/she/it, we, you, they.
 >  >
 >  >         Of course, then there would be more specific or strange verbs,
 >  > nouns and pronouns depending on each culture/language. But I think a
 >  > basic list of these terms would be useful when starting a conlang (for
 >  > me, at least! :-)). Is there any of this already in the FAQ, or
 >  > somewhere else?
 >  >
 >
 > There have been vaurious attempts to create basic vocabulary lists for
 > conlanging. Personally I'm using Rick Harrison's Vital English
 > Vocabulary
 >
 > http://www.invisiblelighthouse.com/langlab/vitaleng.html
 >
 > It's fairly anglocentric, though, despite the inclusion of kanji
 > data. But not a bad place to start from.  It might be a longer list
 > than you're looking for, of course.
 >

Addendum - the Universal Language Dictionary, by the same author, is
also useful, and based on a wider range of sources.

 http://www.invisiblelighthouse.com/uld/uld2.html

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