This is a Swadesh list of words in Slovene , compared with definitions in English .
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.
№ English Sloveneslovenščina edit (207) 1 I (1sg )jaz 2 you (2sg )ti 3 he , she , it (3sg )on , ona , ono 4 we (1pl )mi , me 5 you (2pl )vi , ve 6 they (3pl )oni , one 7 this ta , to 8 that tisti , tista , tisto 9 here tu , tukaj 10 there tam 11 who kdo 12 what kaj 13 where kje 14 when kdaj 15 how kako 16 not ne 17 all vse 18 many veliko , mnogo 19 some nekoliko , nekaj 20 few malo 21 other drugi 22 one ena 23 two dva , dve 24 three tri 25 four štiri 26 five pet 27 big velik 28 long dolg 29 wide širok 30 thick debel 31 heavy težek , težak 32 small majhen 33 short kratek 34 narrow ozek 35 thin tanek 36 woman ženska 37 man (adult male)moški 38 man (human being)človek 39 child otrok , dete 40 wife žena 41 husband mož 42 mother mati 43 father oče 44 animal žival 45 fish riba 46 bird ptič , ptica 47 dog pes 48 louse uš 49 snake kača 50 worm črv 51 tree drevo 52 forest gozd 53 stick palica 54 fruit plod , sadež 55 seed seme 56 leaf list 57 root koren 58 bark (of a tree)skorja 59 flower roža , cvet 60 grass trava 61 rope vrv 62 skin koža 63 meat meso 64 blood kri 65 bone kost 66 fat (noun)maščoba 67 egg jajce 68 horn rog 69 tail rep 70 feather pero 71 hair lasje 72 head glava 73 ear uho 74 eye oko 75 nose nos 76 mouth usta 77 tooth zob 78 tongue (organ)jezik 79 fingernail noht 80 foot noga , stopalo 81 leg noga 82 knee koleno 83 hand roka 84 wing krilo , perut 85 belly trebuh 86 guts drobovje 87 neck vrat 88 back hrbet 89 breast prsi , nedra 90 heart srce 91 liver jetra 92 to drink piti 93 to eat jesti 94 to bite gristi 95 to suck sesati 96 to spit pljuvati 97 to vomit bruhati , bljuvati 98 to blow pihati 99 to breathe dihati 100 to laugh smejati se101 to see videti 102 to hear slišati 103 to know vedeti 104 to think misliti 105 to smell vohati 106 to fear bati se107 to sleep spati 108 to live živeti 109 to die umreti 110 to kill ubiti 111 to fight boriti se112 to hunt loviti 113 to hit udariti 114 to cut rezati 115 to split razcepiti , razdvojiti 116 to stab zabosti , zbosti 117 to scratch praskati 118 to dig kopati 119 to swim plavati 120 to fly leteti 121 to walk hoditi 122 to come priti 123 to lie (as in a bed) ležati 124 to sit sedeti 125 to stand stati 126 to turn (intransitive) obrniti 127 to fall pasti 128 to give dati 129 to hold držati 130 to squeeze stiskati 131 to rub drgniti 132 to wash umivati 133 to wipe brisati 134 to pull vleči 135 to push potisniti , suniti 136 to throw vreči 137 to tie vezati 138 to sew šivati 139 to count šteti 140 to say reči 141 to sing peti 142 to play igrati 143 to float plavati 144 to flow teči 145 to freeze zamrzniti 146 to swell oteči 147 sun sonce 148 moon luna 149 star zvezda 150 water voda 151 rain dež 152 river reka 153 lake jezero 154 sea morje 155 salt sol 156 stone kamen 157 sand pesek 158 dust prah 159 earth zemlja 160 cloud oblak 161 fog megla 162 sky nebo 163 wind veter 164 snow sneg 165 ice led 166 smoke dim 167 fire ogenj 168 ash pepel 169 to burn žgati 170 road cesta 171 mountain gora 172 red rdeč 173 green zelen 174 yellow rumen 175 white bel 176 black črn 177 night noč 178 day dan 179 year leto 180 warm topel 181 cold hladen 182 full poln 183 new nov 184 old star 185 good dober 186 bad slab 187 rotten gnil 188 dirty umazan 189 straight raven 190 round okrogel 191 sharp (as a knife)oster 192 dull (as a knife)top 193 smooth gladek 194 wet moker 195 dry suh 196 correct pravilen 197 near bližnji 198 far oddaljen 199 right desni 200 left levi 201 at pri 202 in v 203 with s , z 204 and in 205 if če , ako 206 because ker 207 name ime
Swadesh lists
Individual languages
Language families, family branches, and geographic groupings
Constructed languages
Reconstructed proto-languages
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