Re: Basic lexicon

Quoting Clint Jackson Baker <litrex1@...>:

> Siyo!
> If you're hard up, a standby is Basic English, this
> 850-word list some guy came up with whose last name
> begins with an O.  (Okay, guys, pelt me with something
> for forgetting his name.)  He had some bizarre ideas
> on language though,
Indeed. I would not at all suggest Basic English as a
kind of standard from which to make basic vocabulary,
since Ogden was only able to pare down his basic vocabulary
by importing English idioms like "make good [on a promise]"
which still need to be remembered as a unit.

Instead, I would suggest one of the Swadesh lists, preferably
the 200-word or higher.  You can find a copy of it here:

<http://www.df.lth.se/~cml/swadesh.txt>

Using this is not entirely straightforward, since this list
reflects many possible human circumstances, not all of which
may be found in every language.  For example, a language
spoken by a culture that lives on an alluvial plain will not
necessarily have a word for "mountain", despite its presence
on this list.  Therefore, care should be taken as to what
you want your language to reflect.

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...> <http://home.uchicago.edu/~trwier>

             "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street   and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637     Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers

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