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 | Chagatai چغتاى edit (52) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | I (1sg) | من (män) |
| 2 | you (2sg) | سيز (siz) (more formal), سن (sän) (more informal) |
| 3 | he, she, it (3sg) | او (u), اول (ul) |
| 4 | we (1pl) | بيز (biz) |
| 5 | you (2pl) | سيزلار (sizlär) |
| 6 | they (3pl) | اولار (ular), الار (alar) |
| 7 | this | بو (bu) (in a concrete sense), اوشبو (ušbu) (this in particular), شو (šu) (in an abstract sense/aforementioned), شول (šul) (in an abstract sense/aforementioned) |
| 8 | that | اول (ul/ol), اوشول (ušul) (that in particular) |
| 9 | here | بو يار (bu yär) (lit. this place, used with other forms of this too) |
| 10 | there | اول يار (ul yär) (lit. that place, used with other forms of that too) |
| 11 | who | |
| 12 | what | نمه (nemä) |
| 13 | where | |
| 14 | when | |
| 15 | how | |
| 16 | not | ايماس (emäs) (negative copula; is/are not), -ماى- (-may-/-mäy-) (negational affix in verbs) |
| 17 | all | |
| 18 | many | |
| 19 | some | |
| 20 | few | |
| 21 | other | |
| 22 | one | بر (bir) (also used as indefinite article) |
| 23 | two | ايكى (ikki) |
| 24 | three | اوچ (uč) |
| 25 | four | |
| 26 | five | |
| 27 | big | چونک (čoŋ) |
| 28 | long | |
| 29 | wide | |
| 30 | thick | |
| 31 | heavy | |
| 32 | small | کچیک (kičik) |
| 33 | short | |
| 34 | narrow | تار (tar) |
| 35 | thin | |
| 36 | woman | مظلوم كشى (maẓlūm kiši) |
| 37 | man (adult male) | اير كشى (er kiši), آدم (ādam) |
| 38 | man (human being) | كشى (kiši) (generally means person) |
| 39 | child | بلا (bala) |
| 40 | wife | |
| 41 | husband | اير (er) |
| 42 | mother | انا (ana) |
| 43 | father | اتا (ata) |
| 44 | animal | جانور (jānwar) |
| 45 | fish | باليق (baliq), بليق (beliq) |
| 46 | bird | |
| 47 | dog | ايب (it) |
| 48 | louse | |
| 49 | snake | |
| 50 | worm | |
| 51 | tree | |
| 52 | forest | |
| 53 | stick | |
| 54 | fruit | میوه (mewä) |
| 55 | seed | |
| 56 | leaf | |
| 57 | root | |
| 58 | bark (of a tree) | |
| 59 | flower | |
| 60 | grass | |
| 61 | rope | |
| 62 | skin | |
| 63 | meat | كوشت (göšt) |
| 64 | blood | |
| 65 | bone | |
| 66 | fat (noun) | |
| 67 | egg | |
| 68 | horn | |
| 69 | tail | |
| 70 | feather | |
| 71 | hair | |
| 72 | head | |
| 73 | ear | |
| 74 | eye | |
| 75 | nose | |
| 76 | mouth | |
| 77 | tooth | |
| 78 | tongue (organ) | |
| 79 | fingernail | |
| 80 | foot | |
| 81 | leg | |
| 82 | knee | |
| 83 | hand | |
| 84 | wing | |
| 85 | belly | |
| 86 | guts | |
| 87 | neck | |
| 88 | back | |
| 89 | breast | |
| 90 | heart | کونکل (köŋül) |
| 91 | liver | |
| 92 | to drink | ايچ- (ič-) |
| 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 | |
| 107 | to sleep | |
| 108 | to live | |
| 109 | to die | |
| 110 | to kill | سوى- (soy-) (more in the sense 'slaughter') |
| 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 | كل- (käl-/kel-) |
| 123 | to lie (as in a bed) | |
| 124 | to sit | اولبور- (oltur-) |
| 125 | to stand | |
| 126 | to turn (intransitive) | |
| 127 | to fall | |
| 128 | to give | بر- (bär-/ber-) |
| 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 | |
| 148 | moon | |
| 149 | star | |
| 150 | water | سو (su) |
| 151 | rain | |
| 152 | river | |
| 153 | lake | كول (kol) |
| 154 | sea | |
| 155 | salt | توز (tuz) |
| 156 | stone | |
| 157 | sand | |
| 158 | dust | |
| 159 | earth | |
| 160 | cloud | |
| 161 | fog | |
| 162 | sky | |
| 163 | wind | |
| 164 | snow | |
| 165 | ice | موز (muz) |
| 166 | smoke | |
| 167 | fire | |
| 168 | ash | |
| 169 | to burn | |
| 170 | road | يول (yol) |
| 171 | mountain | |
| 172 | red | قزل (qizil), قيزيل |
| 173 | green | کوک, كوك (kök) (also blue) |
| 174 | yellow | |
| 175 | white | اق (aq) |
| 176 | black | قرا (qara) |
| 177 | night | |
| 178 | day | |
| 179 | year | |
| 180 | warm | ايسيق (issiq) |
| 181 | cold | ساوق (sawuq) |
| 182 | full | |
| 183 | new | ينكى (yeŋi) |
| 184 | old | |
| 185 | good | يجشى (yaḫši), ياجشى |
| 186 | bad | يمان (yaman) |
| 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 | -ده (-da/-dä) |
| 203 | with | |
| 204 | and | و (wä) |
| 205 | if | |
| 206 | because | |
| 207 | name |