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Re: swadesh?

From:Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
Date:Friday, April 2, 1999, 1:18
Fabian wrote:

> >Well, in general sound (and in the transcription of q and x), > >it reminds me of my own conlang - as does the historic tense. > >Perhaps we should do a Swadesh on both? > > > >The There seems to be a bit of Chinese in, too, at least, to my > >uninformed ear. > > Whats a swadesh? It sounds painful.
I believe it was Irena who asked if there were any lists available that would indicate what kinds of words are most common in world natlangs, and I pointed out that certain linguists (glottochronologists to be precise) use what's called the Swadesh list (named after Morris Swadesh) to try to figure out the time at which two languages diverged. That's of course not important to most people here, but the list is also excellent for finding what the most fundamental words in most languages are. ======================================================= Tom Wier <artabanos@...> ICQ#: 4315704 AIM: Deuterotom Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/> "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero." There's nothing particularly wrong with the proletariat. It's the hamburgers of the proletariat that I have a problem with. - Alfred Wallace ========================================================