Re: lexicons

nicole wrote:

> Tom Wier wrote:
> >
> > nicole wrote:
> >
> > > Since I'm only working on my first conlang, I really have no experience
> > > on which words to include in my lexicon (which words are most common,
> > > most "important," etc.).  Are there any word lists online of common
> > > English words?  The categories from Lingua Ignota were helpful, but
> > > specific words would be more so.  Thanks.
> >
> > You should probably do a seach on the internet about the "Swadesh List"
> > or "Morris Swadesh".  He was a linguist earlier in this century who did some
> > work in historical linguistics using a set of words that he hypothesized every
> > related language would have in common (the more words two languages have
> > in common, in terms of being cognates, the more closely related the two languages
> > will be).  For your work, though, it will be good on just knowing what words
> > you should have to include in your basic vocabularies.
>
> Thanks for the ideas as to what to include, if anyone else might be
> interested the Swadesh List can be found at
>
> http://www.df.lth.se/~cml/swadesh.txt
>
> with an explanation of what it was meant to be used for.
No word for "food," though, I note, or for "meal."  No word for "shit"--a prettybasic
concept you'd think, or "fuck."  Was there a word for "sex"?  And no
word for "read" or "book" or letters."  Was there a word for "language?"  I don't
think so.  There was "say," but not "speak."   Was there a word for "word"?

An interesting exercise, maybe the basis for a lexicon, but so limited.  But a good
starting point.  You could derive "meal" or "food" from "to eat."  A good check list
for those of us making up vocabulary more haphazardly!   Teonaht has most of 'em...
<G>
Sally

PS:  it could be the basis for a set of  originary syllables that you could derive a
more
complex language from.  I tried doing that with my "Nenddeylit" core-vocabulary, from
which I built some Teonaht words:

    trin    feather, wing
    dris    hard
    il        dark
    hil       constellation
    he        light
    heth    fire
    ban    offspring
    bav    chamber
    pel     flowing
    dro    direction
    narn   earth
    wem   pretty, adornment
    til        star
    gal      food
    del      condition
    el        big
    sin       group
    wyf     arrangement, system
    sind    together, conjunction
    sos     misfortune
    sar      anger
    pris     angular
    mek    flat
    thes, thel    same, kin
    sil       shiver
    glest     gray
    wep    seed
    mem   water
    rem    action
    rel      peace
    dil     thing
    fan    slow
    fand    art, skill
    brin     extra, too much
    pyk   sharp
    sryk   bite
    uen    take
    rel     love
    rev    love
    uesh  hate
    kem   though
    tekh   strike
    pren   clear
    fel     beautiful
    las     white
    tant    rhythm
    mist    covering
    tysk    slash
    prel     sound, shrill
    ron     animal
    nom    breath
    ket      around
    kem    center
    kom    sexual love
    ot       evil, emptiness
    fid      evil
    mrel    mix
    dyz     tall
    hen     away
    nimr    swift
    ry       narrow
    son     big
    bin      little
    thon    soft
    mend   textured
    besh    low, short
    mish    measure, measurement

Many of these are poetic, because, unorganized conlanger that I was, I would make up
more
words for one concept than I needed to, simply because I'd forgotten I had done it
before,
or I wasn't keeping my lists in the same place.   This was all pre-computer, mind you,
back
in the sixties and seventies.

S.Caves