Basic vocabulary

Basic vocabulary is a concept that is frequently encountered in lexicology and semantics. While human languages may divide semantic space in quite distinct ways, it is postulated that certain concepts are regardless universally known; and that the words denoting these concepts are resilient to change.

Semantic areas commonly posited as basic

• Personal and demonstrative pronouns
• Numerals
• Body parts
• Natural phenomena (sun, moon, wind, rain)

Lists for historical comparison

Swadesh-50 list

Distinct "stability quotients" have been determined for each of the Swadesh-100 entries by Sergei Starostin. On this basis, George Starostin proposes establishing a shortened version of the list for surveying the genetical affiliation of languages. For reasons of practicality, he excludes also a number of relatively stable word roots that show other issues:

• the pronouns 'this' and 'that': the structure of demonstrative pronoun systems in the world's languages may vary, and short monosyllabic demonstrative roots are prone to accidental similarities
• 'liver', a word frequently unrecorded in superficial surveys
• 'fish', a concept frequently unknown in desert communities
• 'neck', 'breast': prone to sound-symbolism and polysemy (versus 'throat' and 'chest')
• 'full', 'stand', 'give': prone to synonymy

These nine words are substituted with three body parts ('foot', 'horn', 'head'), two universal food items ('meat', 'egg'), two semantically better-defined verbs ('to kill', 'to hear') as well as 'black', 'night'.

Leipzig-Jakarta list

The Leipzig-Jakarta list is a more recent collection of 100 concepts established as rarely loaned, on the basis of the etymological analysis of vocabulary across 41 languages. Some words on the list, though, may be prone to onomatopoetic ('to chop') or derivational ('yesterday') origin, as is suggested by their absense from the Swadesh list.

Yakhontov list

A brief 35-word list developed by Sergei Yakhontov that was used by the Russian Nostratics school as a preliminary approximation of the stablest basic vocabulary, prior to the development of the Swadesh-50 list.

Comparison

Abbreviations:

• #: Stability index per Starostin for the Sw100 list
• LJ: the Leipzig-Jakarta list
• Sw50, 100, 200: various versions of the Swadesh list
• Y: the Yakhontov list

Lexeme	Semantic area	#	LJ	Sw50	Sw100	Sw200	Y
we	pronoun	1		√	√
two	numeral	2		√	√		√
I	pronoun	3	√	√	√		√
eye	body part	4	√	√	√		√
thou	pronoun	5	√	√	√		√
who	pronoun	6	√	√	√		√
fire	substance	7	√	√	√		√
tongue	body part	8	√	√	√		√
stone (/rock)	substance	9	√	√	√		√
name	social	10	√	√	√		√
hand (/arm)	body part	11	√	√	√		√
what	pronoun	12	√	√	√		√
to die	verb	13		√	√		√
heart	body part	14		√	√
to drink	verb: action	15	√	√	√
dog	animal	16	√	√	√		√
louse	animal	17	√	√	√		√
moon	celestial	18		√	√		√
fingernail	body part	19		√	√
blood	tissue	20	√	√	√		√
one	numeral	21	√	√	√		√
tooth	body part	22	√	√	√		√
new	adjective	23	√	√	√		√
dry	adjective	24		√	√
liver	body part	25	√		√
to eat	verb: action	26	√	√	√
tail	body part	27	√	√	√		√
this	pronoun	28	√		√		√
head hair	tissue	29	√	√	√
water	substance	30	√	√	√		√
nose	body part	31	√	√	√		√
not		32	√	√	√
mouth	body part	33	√	√	√
full	adjective	34			√		√
ear	body part	35	√	√	√		√
that	pronoun	36			√
bird	animal	37	√	√	√
bone	tissue	38	√	√	√		√
sun	celestial	39		√	√		√
smoke	substance	40	√	√	√
to stand	verb	41	√		√
tree	plant	42		√	√
ashes	substance	43	√	√	√
to give	verb: action	44	√		√		√
rain		45	√	√	√
star	celestial	46	√	√	√
fish	animal	47	√		√		√
neck	body part	48	√		√
breast	body part	49	√		√
leaf	plant	50	√	√	√
to come	verb: motion	51	√		√
to kill	verb: action	52		√	√
foot (/leg)	body part	53	√	√	√
to sit	verb	54			√
root	plant	55	√		√
horn	body part	56	√	√	√		√
to fly	verb: motion	57	√		√
to hear	verb: perception	58	√	√	√
skin (/hide)	body part / tissue	59	√		√
long	adjective: spatial	60	√		√
meat (food)	substance / tissue	61	√	√	√
road		62			√
to know	verb	63	√		√		√
to say	verb	64	√		√
egg		65	√	√	√		√
seed	plant	66			√
knee	body part	67	√		√
black	adjective: color	68	√	√	√
head	body part	69		√	√
to sleep	verb	70			√
to burn (itr.)	verb	71	√		√
earth		72			√
feather		73			√
to swim	verb	74			√
white	adjective: color	75			√
to bite	verb: action	76	√		√
fat	tissue	77			√
man	social	78			√
person	social	79			√
all		80			√
night		81	√	√	√
to see	verb: perception	82	√		√
to walk/go	verb: motion	83	√		√
warm	adjective	84			√
red	adjective: color	85	√		√
cold	adjective	86			√
woman	social	87			√
round	adjective: spatial	88			√
yellow	adjective: color	89			√
to lie	verb	90			√
green	adjective: color	91			√
cloud	celestial	92			√
big	adjective: spatial	93	√		√
tree bark	plant	94	√		√
sand	substance	95	√		√
good	adjective	96	√		√
many	adjective	97			√
mountain		98			√
belly	body part	99			√
small	adjective: spatial	100	√		√
salt	substance	-	√				√
wind		-	√				√
year		-					√
ant	animal	-	√
back	body/spatial??	-	√
bitter	adjective	-	√
to blow	verb	-	√
to carry	verb	-	√
child	social	-	√
to crush/grind	verb: action	-	√
to cry/weep	verb	-	√
to do/make	verb	-	√
to fall	verb: motion	-	√
far	adjective: spatial	-	√
hard	adjective	-	√
3PS	pronoun	-	√
heavy	adjective	-	√
to hide	verb: action	-	√
to hit/beat	verb: action	-	√
house		-	√
in	preposition	-	√
to laugh	verb	-	√
navel	body part	-	√
old	adjective	-	√
rope		-	√
to run	verb: motion	-	√
shade/shadow		-	√
soil	substance	-	√
to suck	verb	-	√
sweet	adjective	-	√
to take	verb: action	-	√
thick	adjective: spatial	-	√
thigh	body part	-	√
to tie	verb: action	-	√
wide	adjective: spatial	-	√
wood	substance	-	√
yesterday		-	√