Basic Words and Language Evolution

Abstract

Swadesh (1952, 1955) proposed using basic-word lists for his studies in glottochronology. We have used these same lists to investigate language evolution. Chen (1996) distinguished two subgroups in Swadesh's 200-word list, placing half of the words in a high rank & half in a low rank. High-rank words are more stable through time & less likely to be loanwords; borrowed elements tend to occur more frequently among low-rank words. This characteristic of the Swadesh list can be usefully exploited to distinguish lexical retentions from borrowings; this kind of tool can be particularly useful when the evolution of a language has been affected by language contact, as was the case in the development of Middle Chinese entering tones in Pekinese. Finally we compare Dolgopolsky's (1964) 15-word list, Yakhontov's 35-word list, & Swadesh, & conclude that Swadesh's (1955) 100 basic words (high rank) are best for sub-grouping Chinese dialects. 1 Figure, 3 Appendixes, 26 References. Adapted from the source document