Swadesh lists
- Swadesh 100
- This is the "Original final Swadesh list" as per Wikipedia.
- Swadesh 207
- The Swadesh list of 207 terms is what you'll usually find if you go searching for Swadesh lists. It is not on Wikipedia however.
- Yakhontov
- Based on the Swadesh 207 list, this list has 35 words.
- Holman list
- Based on the Swadesh 100 list, this list has 40 highly frequent words.
The Buck lists
The Buck lists all started with the book A dictionary of grammatical terms in linguistics by Carl Darling Buck, published by The University of Chicago Press in 1949. The words in the book are divided into 22 categories, and within each category each word, or sense, has its own identifying symbol, the Buck number.
The Buck number consists of two groups of digits, the first group is the category and the second is the id within that category. The groups are usually separated by a dot ('.').
- Buck 1949
- These are the words from the book itself. Buck numbers that originates from the book are prefixed with a 'b'. Because b13.31, b13.53, b14.72, b18.14, b19.352 and b19.71 aren't senses per se but overviews of several other senses, they are not included in this list.
- Buck IDS
- The Buck categories and words were later used as the basis for The Intercontinental Dictionary Series (IDS). IDS only used a subset of the words from the book. However, some new words were added and others were given new Buck numbers. For instance, b4.48 "egg" in Buck is the same as i5.970 "egg" in IDS. Buck numbers from IDS are prefixed with an 'i'.
- Buck WOLD
- The IDS-list was then used as the basis for the World Loanword Database (WOLD). WOLD also increased the number of senses and added two additional categories: 23 Modern world and 24 Miscellaneous function words. The purpose of the list was to track the path of loan-words: which languages borrow which words from which other languages. Many of the added words are therefore highly culture-specific, so handle with care. Buck numbers from IDS are prefixed with a 'w'.
- Minimum Buck
- Only the senses that all three Buck-lists have in common.
- Maximum Buck
- Every sense from every Buck-list.
- Only words unique to Buck 1949
- They had a thing for castrated farm animals in the olden days. Notice also that the numeral three is used as a stand-in for things one can do with numbers.
- Only words unique to IDS
- Not a lot.
- Only words unique to WOLD
- This list also includes the extra categories 23 Modern world and 24 Miscellaneous function words.
- The words added by IDS and WOLD
- Now complete.
A test for whether a word-list is based on Buck, IDS or WOLD is what the Buck number is for "thief". In Buck, "thief" has the number 11.57 sorted under the category 11 Possession, in IDS the number is 21.520, sorting under 21 Law, and in WOLD, it has the number 21.52. Buck-format prefers a minimum of two digits after the dot and never has more than three. WOLD-format can have more than three digits after the dot. IDS and especially WOLD are keen on using zero in the numbers.
The Leipzig-Jakarta list
The Leipzig-Jakarta list of 100 words aims to replace the Swadesh lists. It is calculated from the words and meanings in WOLD, but the wold number (the LWT code) has been stripped away and there are some oddities like arm/hand and leg/foot.
Weirdities
Words that are in Swadesh but not in Buck
