Belly, Paunch, Stomach, Tummy. The troubles with Swadesh word lists.

Burtă, Pântece, Stomac?

 

Atlasul lingvistic român, cuvânt “burtă” by Sextil Pușcariu and others 1925

The map above is from the Romanian Linguistic Atlas showing the variants of the word “belly” and their distribution. It discusses six different names for the “bowels”

• BURTĂ of unknown etymology; possibly akin to Albanian bark, Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- ‘to carry’. (English cognate belly??)
• PÂNTECE from Latin pantex, (English cognate paunch)
• FOALE from Latin follis, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰolǵʰnis, derivative of *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”). (English cognate belly)
• STOMAC from Latin stomachus < greek στόμαχος (stómachos) (English cognate stomach)
• BÂRDAN possibly from Germanic blēdrǭ (English cognate bladder??)
• DOBĂ possibly from toba? (English cognate drum?)
• trbúhu from Slavic trbuh, from Proto-Slavic *trьbuxъ. (English cognate ??)

and then it shows the distribution in Romanian, Megleno-Romanian, Aromanian and Istro-Romanian.  The map then wonderfully plots the variations for the different “tummy” words and their varying pronunciation, for example by paunch, that comes from the Latin Pantex, there are seven variations; PÂNTECE, PÂNTETE, PÂNDICÂ, PÂNCE, PÂNTEC, PÂNTIC and PÂNTICÂ, spread about Moldova and Transylvania as well as for Megleno-Romanian and Aromanian in Macedonia. Foale seems to be the most stable term for abdomen,  occurring mainly in Banat but also in Istria.

A recreation of the 1925 map by Arnold Platon in 2015

Above is a recreation of the Romanian Linguistic Atlas map by Arnold Platon shared in the Subreddit r/etymologymaps.

The troubles with Swadesh word lists.

For those readers that might chuckle at the many Romanian terms for stomach, there are numerous terms in many languages. In English there is Stomach, Belly, Tummy, Bladder, Maw, Bouk, Paunch, Abdomen, Vesica, Gut, Bowels. In German there is Magen, Bauch, Wanze, Wanst, Wamme, Wampe, Panze, Plauze, Ranzen, Blather, Unterleib, and probably more that I do not know of.  These are not the language exceptions, many languages have a heterogeneous distribution of words used to describe the belly. This makes the term a good tool to help define dialects of a single language. However it creates a headache if you attempt to compare many languages with each other.  And that is exactly what Morris Swadesh suggested to do.

Morris Swadesh was an influential linguist of the mid 20th century and one of the his big contributions, to comparative linguistics, was to propose several word lists which would allow researchers to quantify the interrelatedness of those languages. Belly/Stomach/Bladder is one of those words that made it onto Swadesh’s lists. Even though because of its instability and the heterogeneous vocabulary used for the meaning it is rather impractical for the comparison of languages. Morris Swadesh grew to understand the problems with his word list, and he thus whittled the original № 225 words from 1950 down to 207 and № 200 words (meanings) in 1952, and then again to a 100 word list in 1955, that was only published in 1971 and 1972. The № 207-word list made by far the biggest impact and was widely circulated for two decades before the № 100-word list version was published, which competed with 207’s popularity.

Swadesh № 207 Word List
1	I	70	feather	139	to count
2	you (singular)	71	hair	140	to say
3	he	72	head	141	to sing
4	we	73	ear	142	to play
5	you (plural)	74	eye	143	to float
6	they	75	nose	144	to flow
7	this	76	mouth	145	to freeze
8	that	77	tooth	146	to swell
9	here	78	tongue	147	sun
10	there	79	fingernail	148	moon
11	who	80	foot	149	star
12	what	81	leg	150	water
13	where	82	knee	151	rain
14	when	83	hand	152	river
15	how	84	wing	153	lake
16	not	85	belly	154	sea
17	all	86	guts	155	salt
18	many	87	neck	156	stone
19	some	88	back	157	sand
20	few	89	breast	158	dust
21	other	90	heart	159	earth
22	one	91	liver	160	cloud
23	two	92	to drink	161	fog
24	three	93	to eat	162	sky
25	four	94	to bite	163	wind
26	five	95	to suck	164	snow
27	big	96	to spit	165	ice
28	long	97	to vomit	166	smoke
29	wide	98	to blow	167	fire
30	thick	99	to breathe	168	ash
31	heavy	100	to laugh	169	to burn
32	small	101	to see	170	road
33	short	102	to hear	171	mountain
34	narrow	103	to know	172	red
35	thin	104	to think	173	green
36	woman	105	to smell	174	yellow
37	man (male)	106	to fear	175	white
38	man (human)	107	to sleep	176	black
39	child	108	to live	177	night
40	wife	109	to die	178	day
41	husband	110	to kill	179	year
42	mother	111	to fight	180	warm
43	father	112	to hunt	181	cold
44	animal	113	to hit	182	full
45	fish	114	to cut	183	new
46	bird	115	to split	184	old
47	dog	116	to stab	185	good
48	louse	117	to scratch	186	bad
49	snake	118	to dig	187	rotten
50	worm	119	to swim	188	dirty
51	tree	120	to fly	189	straight
52	forest	121	to walk	190	round
53	stick	122	to come	191	sharp (as a knife)
54	fruit	123	to lie (as in a bed)	192	dull (as a knife)
55	seed	124	to sit	193	smooth
56	leaf	125	to stand	194	wet
57	root	126	to turn (intransitive)	195	dry
58	bark (of a tree)	127	to fall	196	correct
59	flower	128	to give	197	near
60	grass	129	to hold	198	far
61	rope	130	to squeeze	199	right
62	skin	131	to rub	200	left
63	meat	132	to wash	201	at
64	blood	133	to wipe	202	in
65	bone	134	to pull	203	with
66	fat (noun)	135	to push	204	and
67	egg	136	to throw	205	if
68	horn	137	to tie	206	because
69	tail	138	to sew	207	name

This № 207 word list was used by many anthropologists as a standard questioner when documenting a language. A young anthropologist on a research expedition would sit down and ask a village elder the words for 207 different meanings were, 1. I (pronoun)? 2. you? 3. he? 4. we? ect… many times they would run into problems, what if the language being documented did not have a word for 61 rope? or 145 to freeze? What if a language has many words for 97 to vomit/puke/spew/belch/barf/sick? What should the anthropologist note for 52? Forest? Wood? Brush? To 47 dog? hound? mutt? In an effort to work on the problems when documenting synonyms Sara C. Gudschinsky in 1956 adapted the Swadesh № 200. But there are so many synonyms. The words for many of the meanings are unstable, are prone to borrowing, to slang, to replacement, and thus are impracticable to quantify the interrelatedness of those languages.

Morris Swadesh also came to this realisation and in 1955 he wrote about his 100 word list:

“The only solution appears to be a drastic weeding out of the list, in the realization that quality is at least as important as quantity….Even the new list has defects, but they are relatively mild and few in number.”

Swadesh was by far not the first linguist to compile word lists for comparisons. Gottfried Leibniz  had compiled a № 128 word list by 1716 and in 1782 William Marsden compiled a № 50 word list mainly to compare East Asian languages. The search for a useful word list continued through out the 18th to 20th century. Many of the terms compiled by Leibniz and successor linguists of the 18th and 19th century are included again in Swadesh’s lists. For example ⅔ of Marsden’s № 50 list is included on Swadesh’s № 207 or 79% of Hans C. Gabelentz‘s 1861 № 24 word list. Early Swadesh seems to have been overly concerned with quantity and at the expense of quality. It is a shame he did not get round to publishing his shorter № 100 version earlier or that he did not publicize or know of Brinton’s № 21 List, Ray’s № 26 List or Gabelentz’s № 24 List.

Brinton № 21 List (1891)		Ray № 26 List (1895)		Gabelentz  № 24 List (1861)
1	man	11	man	6	human
2	woman	20	woman
		13	mother
		6	father
8	eye			7	eye
9	ear	5	ear
10	mouth	17	tongue	11	mouth
12	tongue
7	head			8	head
				9	hair
11	nose	14	nose	10	nose
13	teeth			12	tooth
14	hand	7	hand, arm	13	hand
15	foot			14	foot
		2	blood
		3	bone
3	sun	16	sun	1	sun
4	moon	12	moon	2	moon
		15	star
				3	earth
21	house	8	house
5	fire			5	fire
6	water	19	water	4	water
16	one	21	one	15	one
17	two	22	two	16	two
18	three	23	three	17	three
19	four	24	four	18	four
20	five	25	five	19	five
		26	six	20	six
				21	seven
				22	eight
				23	nine
				24	ten
		1	bird
		4	butterfly
		10	louse
		18	tree
		9	leaf

Having well a documented set of about 20 stable words, with maybe the correct pronunciation, transliteration and background information is more valuable for language comparison than 200 hastily jotted down words.  Ahron Dolgopolsky was one person to understand this and put a remarkably stable № 15 word list together in 1964, Vitaly Shevoroshkin’s adapted it in 1991 and added eight words to compile a № 23 list. Vincent Beaufils analysed thousands of word list combinations to determine which fits best to automatically determine Indo-European language relationships and compiled a № 18 word list in 2015.

Dolgopolsky № 15 (1964)		Shevoroshkin № 23 (1991)		Beaufils  № 18 (2015)
1	I	1	I	15	I
2	two	2	two	12	two*
3	thou	3	thou	16	thou
4	who/what	4	who/what	17	who
5	tongue	5	tongue	5	tongue
6	name	6	name	18	name
7	eye	7	eye	1	eye
8	heart	8	heart
9	tooth	9	tooth	6	tooth
10	no	10	no or not
11	(finger)nail	11	(finger)nail
12	louse	12	louse
13	tear (of eye)	13	tear (of eye)
14	water	14	water	8	water
15	dead	15	dead	7	death*
		16	hand	4	hand
		17	night
		18	blood
		19	horn
		20	full
		21	sun	9	sun
		22	ear	2	ear
		23	salt
				10	wind
				11	night
				13	three*
				14	four*
				3	nose

*On Beaufils  № 18, missing on the Leipzig–Jakarta № 100

The lists to use

To address many of the issues with the longer Swadesh lists, a group of linguists from across the world compiled the Leipzig-Jakarta № 100 word list (first list named after cities instead of individuals).

Leipzig–Jakarta № 100 ranked by semantic stability
1.	fire	34a.	who?	67a.	to hide
2.	nose	34b.	3SG pronoun	67b.	skin/hide
3.	to go	36.	to hit/beat	67c.	to suck
4.	water	37.	leg/foot	70.	to carry
5.	mouth	38a.	horn	71a.	ant
6.	tongue	38b.	this	71b.	heavy
7a.	blood	38c.	fish	71c.	to take
7b.	bone	41.	yesterday	74.	old
9a.	2SG pronoun	42a.	to drink	75.	to eat
9b.	root	42b.	black	76a.	thigh
11.	to come	42c.	navel	76b.	thick
12.	breast	45.	to stand	78.	long
13.	rain	46a.	to bite	79.	to blow
14.	1SG pronoun	46b.	back	80.	wood
15a.	name	48.	wind	81a.	to run
15b.	louse	49.	smoke	81b.	to fall
17.	wing	50.	what?	83.	eye
18.	flesh/meat	51.	child (kin term)	84a.	ash
19.	arm/hand	52.	egg	84b.	tail
20a.	fly	53a.	to give	84c.	dog
20b.	night	53b.	new	87.	to cry/weep
22.	ear	53c.	to burn (intr.)	88.	to tie
23a.	neck	56a.	not	89a.	to see
23b.	far	56b.	good	89b.	sweet
25.	to do/make	58.	to know	91a.	rope
26.	house	59.	knee	91b.	shade/shadow
27.	stone/rock	59.	sand	91c.	bird
28a.	bitter	61a.	to laugh	91d.	salt
28b.	to say	61b.	to hear	91e.	small
28c.	tooth	63.	soil	96.	wide
31.	hair	64a.	leaf	97a.	star
32a.	big	64b.	red	97b.	in
32b.	one	66.	liver	99.	hard
				100.	to crush/grind

Above the list is order to semantic stability and this list gives a broad set of words to study secondary influences of several languages. I hope it will gain popularity by anthropologists in the future. For detailed comparison of dialects or two languages this list is a good start. A good start but can diverge, if the goal is to determine dialects of or influences on a language, Belly, Paunch, Stomach, Tummy is a decent term to study. If the goal is to compare languages to with each other, then starting with a short stable word list e.g. № 18 word list.

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Further Reading:

• Concepticon is a project of the Max Planck for the Science of Human History edited by List, Johann Mattis & Cysouw, Michael & Greenhill, Simon & Forkel, Robert.  It has many of the comparative word lists compiled through out history, many of which have not been discussed in this article and are nevertheless very interesting.
• Etymology enthusiasts of the r/etymologymaps community have put many a visual word comparison together for many of the meanings discussed above.