Appendix:Old Persian Swadesh list
This is a Swadesh list of words in Old Persian, compared with definitions in English.
Presentation
[edit]- For further information, including the full final version of the list, read the Wikipedia article: Swadesh list.
American linguist Morris Swadesh believed that languages changed at measurable rates and that these could be determined even for languages without written precursors. Using vocabulary lists, he sought to understand not only change over time but also the relationships of extant languages. To be able to compare languages from different cultures, he based his lists on meanings he presumed would be available in as many cultures as possible. He then used the fraction of agreeing cognates between any two related languages to compute their divergence time by some (still debated) algorithms. Starting in 1950 with 165 meanings, his list grew to 215 in 1952, which was so expansive that many languages lacked native vocabulary for some terms. Subsequently, it was reduced to 207, and reduced much further to 100 meanings in 1955. A reformulated list was published posthumously in 1971.
List
[edit]| № | English | Old Persian edit (30) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | I (1sg) | 𐎠𐎭𐎶 (a-d-m /adam/) |
| 2 | you (2sg) | 𐎬𐎺𐎶 (tu-v-m /tuvam/) |
| 3 | he, she, it (3sg) | 𐏃𐎢𐎺 (h-u-v /hauv/) |
| 4 | we (1pl) | |
| 5 | you (2pl) | |
| 6 | they (3pl) | |
| 7 | this | 𐎡𐎹𐎶 (i-y-m /iyam/) |
| 8 | that | |
| 9 | here | |
| 10 | there | |
| 11 | who | |
| 12 | what | |
| 13 | where | |
| 14 | when | |
| 15 | how | |
| 16 | not | |
| 17 | all | |
| 18 | many | |
| 19 | some | |
| 20 | few | |
| 21 | other | |
| 22 | one | 𐎠𐎡𐎺 (a-i-v /aiva/) |
| 23 | two | |
| 24 | three | |
| 25 | four | |
| 26 | five | *𐎱𐎨 (*p-c /*paⁿča/) |
| 27 | big | |
| 28 | long | 𐎭𐎼𐎥𐎶 (d-r-g-m /dargam/) |
| 29 | wide | |
| 30 | thick | |
| 31 | heavy | |
| 32 | small | |
| 33 | short | |
| 34 | narrow | |
| 35 | thin | |
| 36 | woman | |
| 37 | man (adult male) | 𐎶𐎼𐎫𐎡𐎹 (m-r-t-i-y /martiya/) |
| 38 | man (human being) | |
| 39 | child | 𐎱𐎢𐏂 (p-u-ç /puça/) |
| 40 | wife | |
| 41 | husband | |
| 42 | mother | 𐎶𐎠𐎫𐎠 (m-a-t-a /mātā/) |
| 43 | father | 𐎱𐎡𐎫𐎠 (p-i-t-a /pitā/) |
| 44 | animal | |
| 45 | fish | |
| 46 | bird | |
| 47 | dog | |
| 48 | louse | |
| 49 | snake | |
| 50 | worm | |
| 51 | tree | |
| 52 | forest | |
| 53 | stick | |
| 54 | fruit | |
| 55 | seed | |
| 56 | leaf | |
| 57 | root | |
| 58 | bark (of a tree) | |
| 59 | flower | |
| 60 | grass | |
| 61 | rope | |
| 62 | skin | |
| 63 | meat | |
| 64 | blood | |
| 65 | bone | |
| 66 | fat (noun) | |
| 67 | egg | |
| 68 | horn | |
| 69 | tail | |
| 70 | feather | |
| 71 | hair | |
| 72 | head | |
| 73 | ear | |
| 74 | eye | 𐎨𐏁𐎠𐎶𐎴 (c-š-a-m-n /cašman-/) |
| 75 | nose | 𐎴𐎠𐏃𐎶 (n-a-h-m /nāham/) |
| 76 | mouth | |
| 77 | tooth | |
| 78 | tongue (organ) | |
| 79 | fingernail | |
| 80 | foot | |
| 81 | leg | |
| 82 | knee | |
| 83 | hand | 𐎭𐎿𐎫 (d-s-t /dasta/) |
| 84 | wing | |
| 85 | belly | |
| 86 | guts | |
| 87 | neck | |
| 88 | back | |
| 89 | breast | |
| 90 | heart | |
| 91 | liver | |
| 92 | to drink | |
| 93 | to eat | |
| 94 | to bite | |
| 95 | to suck | |
| 96 | to spit | |
| 97 | to vomit | |
| 98 | to blow | |
| 99 | to breathe | |
| 100 | to laugh | |
| 101 | to see | |
| 102 | to hear | |
| 103 | to know | |
| 104 | to think | |
| 105 | to smell | |
| 106 | to fear | 𐎫𐎼𐎿𐎫𐎡𐎹 (t-r-s-t-i-y /tạrsatiy/) |
| 107 | to sleep | |
| 108 | to live | 𐎪𐎡𐎺𐎫𐎡𐎹 (ji-i-v-t-i-y /jīvatiy/) |
| 109 | to die | |
| 110 | to kill | |
| 111 | to fight | |
| 112 | to hunt | |
| 113 | to hit | |
| 114 | to cut | |
| 115 | to split | |
| 116 | to stab | |
| 117 | to scratch | |
| 118 | to dig | |
| 119 | to swim | |
| 120 | to fly | |
| 121 | to walk | |
| 122 | to come | |
| 123 | to lie (as in a bed) | |
| 124 | to sit | |
| 125 | to stand | |
| 126 | to turn (intransitive) | |
| 127 | to fall | |
| 128 | to give | |
| 129 | to hold | |
| 130 | to squeeze | |
| 131 | to rub | |
| 132 | to wash | |
| 133 | to wipe | |
| 134 | to pull | |
| 135 | to push | |
| 136 | to throw | |
| 137 | to tie | |
| 138 | to sew | |
| 139 | to count | |
| 140 | to say | |
| 141 | to sing | |
| 142 | to play | |
| 143 | to float | |
| 144 | to flow | |
| 145 | to freeze | |
| 146 | to swell | |
| 147 | sun | 𐎢𐎺𐎼 (u-v-r /ʰuvar/) |
| 148 | moon | 𐎶𐎠𐏃 (m-a-h /māh/) |
| 149 | star | |
| 150 | water | |
| 151 | rain | |
| 152 | river | |
| 153 | lake | |
| 154 | sea | 𐎭𐎼𐎹 (d-r-y /draya/) |
| 155 | salt | |
| 156 | stone | 𐎠𐎰𐎥 (a-θ-g /aθaⁿgaʰ/) |
| 157 | sand | |
| 158 | dust | |
| 159 | earth | 𐏏 (BU /būmiš/) |
| 160 | cloud | |
| 161 | fog | |
| 162 | sky | 𐎠𐎿𐎶𐎠 (a-s-m-a /asmā/) |
| 163 | wind | |
| 164 | snow | |
| 165 | ice | |
| 166 | smoke | |
| 167 | fire | 𐎠𐎫𐎼 (a-t-r /ātar/) |
| 168 | ash | |
| 169 | to burn | |
| 170 | road | |
| 171 | mountain | 𐎣𐎢𐎳 (k-u-f /kaufa/) |
| 172 | red | |
| 173 | green | |
| 174 | yellow | |
| 175 | white | |
| 176 | black | |
| 177 | night | 𐎧𐏁𐎱 (x-š-p /xšapa/) |
| 178 | day | 𐎼𐎢𐎨𐏃 (r-u-c-h /raučah/) |
| 179 | year | 𐎰𐎼𐎭 (θ-r-d /θarda/) |
| 180 | warm | |
| 181 | cold | |
| 182 | full | |
| 183 | new | |
| 184 | old | |
| 185 | good | |
| 186 | bad | |
| 187 | rotten | |
| 188 | dirty | |
| 189 | straight | |
| 190 | round | |
| 191 | sharp (as a knife) | |
| 192 | dull (as a knife) | |
| 193 | smooth | |
| 194 | wet | |
| 195 | dry | |
| 196 | correct | |
| 197 | near | |
| 198 | far | |
| 199 | right | |
| 200 | left | |
| 201 | at | |
| 202 | in | |
| 203 | with | 𐏃𐎭𐎠 (h-d-a /hadā/) |
| 204 | and | 𐎢𐎫𐎠 (u-t-a /utā/) |
| 205 | if | |
| 206 | because | |
| 207 | name | 𐎴𐎠𐎶 (n-a-m /nāma/) |