Leipzig–Jakarta list

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List of words used to test for cognates

The Leipzig–Jakarta list is a 100-word list of words used by linguists to test the degree of chronological separation of languages by comparing words that are resistant to borrowing. The Leipzig–Jakarta list became available in 2009.[1]

In the 1950s, the linguist Morris Swadesh published a list of 200 words called the Swadesh list, allegedly the 200 lexical concepts found in all languages that were least likely to be borrowed from other languages. Swadesh later whittled his list down to 100 items. The Swadesh list, however, was based mainly on intuition, according to Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor.[2]

The Loanword Typology Project, with the World Loanword Database (WOLD), published by the Max Planck Digital Library, was established to rectify this problem. Experts on 41 languages from across the world were given a uniform vocabulary list and asked to provide the words for each item in the language on which they were an expert, as well as information on how strong the evidence that each word was borrowed was.[3] The 100 concepts that were found in most languages and were most resistant to borrowing formed the Leipzig–Jakarta list. Only 62 items on the Leipzig–Jakarta list and on the 100-word Swadesh list overlap, hence a 38% difference between the two lists.

25% of the words in the Leipzig–Jakarta list are body parts: mouth, eye, leg/foot, navel, liver, knee, etc.[4] Six animal words appear on the list: fish, bird, dog, louse, ant and fly – animals found everywhere humans can be found.[5]

The items house, name, rope and to tie are products of human culture, but are probably found in all present-day human societies. Haspelmath and Tadmor drew the conclusion that "rope is the most basic of human tools and tying is the most basic technology".[6]

Contents

1 The list

1.1 Alphabetical

1.2 Ranked

2 Differences with the Swadesh list

3 See also

4 References

5 External links

The list[edit]

Alphabetical[edit]

ant

arm/hand

ash

back

big

bird

to bite

bitter

black

blood

to blow

bone

breast

to burn (intransitive)

to carry

child (reciprocal of parent)

to come

to crush/to grind

to cry/to weep

to do/to make

dog

to drink

ear

to eat

egg

eye

to fall

far

fire

fish

flesh/meat

fly

to give

to go

good

hair

hard

he/she/it/him/her

to hear

heavy

to hide

to hit/to beat

horn

house

I/me

in

knee

to know

to laugh

leaf

leg/foot

liver

long

louse

mouth

name

navel

neck

new

night

nose

not

old

one

rain

red

root

rope

to run

salt

sand

to say

to see

shade/shadow

skin/hide

small

smoke

soil

to stand

star

stone/rock

to suck

sweet

tail

to take

thick

thigh

this

to tie

tongue

tooth

water

what?

who?

wide

wind

wing

wood

yesterday

you (singular)

Ranked[edit]

Below are lexical items in the Leipzig–Jakarta list as ranked by semantic stability, i.e. words least likely to be replaced by other words as a language evolves.[7][8]

1. fire

2. nose

3. to go

4. water

5. mouth

6. tongue

7. blood

7. bone

9. 2SG pronoun

9. root

11. to come

12. breast

13. rain

14. 1SG pronoun

15. name

15. louse

17. wing

18. flesh/meat

19. arm/hand

20. fly

20. night

22. ear

23. neck

23. far

25. to do/make

26. house

27. stone/rock

28. bitter

28. to say

28. tooth

31. hair

32. big

32. one

34. who?

34. 3SG pronoun

36. to hit/beat

37. leg/foot

38. horn

38. this

38. fish

41. yesterday

42. to drink

42. black

42. navel

45. to stand

46. to bite

46. back

48. wind

49. smoke

50. what?

51. child (kin term)

52. egg

53. to give

53. new

53. to burn (intr.)

56. not

56. good

58. to know

59. knee

59. sand

61. to laugh

61. to hear

63. soil

64. leaf

64. red

66. liver

67. to hide

67. skin/hide

67. to suck

70. to carry

71. ant

71. heavy

71. to take

74. old

75. to eat

76. thigh

76. thick

78. long

79. to blow

80. wood

81. to run

81. to fall

83. eye

84. ash

84. tail

84. dog

87. to cry/weep

88. to tie

89. to see

89. sweet

91. rope

91. shade/shadow

91. bird

91. salt

91. small

96. wide

97. star

97. in

99. hard

100. to crush/grind

Differences with the Swadesh list[edit]

Items on the Leipzig-Jakarta list but not on the 100-word Swadesh list:[9]

ant

back

bitter

to blow

to carry

child (kin term)

to crush/grind

to cry/weep

to do/make

to fall

far

fly (noun)

to go

hard

3SG pronoun

heavy

to hide

house

in

to laugh

navel

old

rope

to run

salt

shade/shadow

to hit/beat

to suck

sweet

to take

thick

thigh

to tie

wide

wind

wing

wood

yesterday

Items on the 100-word Swadesh list but not on the Leipzig-Jakarta list:[9]

all

bark

belly

cloud

cold

die

dry

feather

fingernail

fly (verb)

full

grease

green

head

heart

hot

kill

lie

man

many

moon

mountain

path

person

round

seed

sit

sleep

sun

swim

that

tree

two

walk

we

white

woman

yellow

See also[edit]

Swadesh list

Dolgopolsky list

Comparative method

References[edit]

^ "Linguistic Fieldwork: A Student Guide" by J. Sakel and D. L. Everett

^ Haspelmath, p. 72

^ "WOLD -". wold.clld.org. Retrieved February 24, 2019.

^ Haspelmath, p. 71

^ Haspelmath, p. 72

^ Haspelmath, p. 72

^ http://udel.edu/~pcole/fieldmethods2010/The%20Leipzig-Jakarta%20Word%20List.pdf Source: Haspelmath, Martin and Uri Tadmor (eds.), 2009. Loanwords in the World’s Languages: A Comparative Handbook. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

^ Tadmor, Uri, Martin Haspelmath, and Bradley Taylor. 2010. Borrowability and the notion of basic vocabulary. Diachronica 27:2 (2010), 226–246. doi:10.1075/dia.27.2.04tad

^ a b Haspelmath, p. 74

Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook, Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor, (C) 2009, de Gruyter Publishing

External links[edit]

Concepticon (concept lists)

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This page was last edited on 24 February 2019, at 05:35 (UTC).

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