The Template for All Human Languages : The Leipzig–Jakarta List

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

  • 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
  • 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)

 

 

One thought on “The Template for All Human Languages : The Leipzig–Jakarta List

  1. It’s utterly nonsensical to alphabetize the list; should it not be ordered by ranking, that is by the degree of borrowability?

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