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Abstract

In this paper, the basic words introduced by Swadesh(1952,1955) are used to uncover information about language evolution. In section 2, based on Chen (1996), Swadesh's 200-word list can be split into two sub-groups; the first 100 words, called high rank, are more stable and loan-resistant than the second 100, called low rank. More retentions tend to be present among the high rank words while borrowed elements tend to occur more frequently among the low rank words. This feature can be used to distinguish retentions and borrowings when the evolution of a language has been blurred by language contact, such as the transmission of Middle Chinese entering tones into Pekinese. In section 3, we argue that Swadesh (1955)'s 100 basic words (high rank) are better for sub-grouping Chinese dialects, compared with Dolgopolsky (1964)'s 15-word list and Yakhontov' 35-word list.

Keywords: basic words, rank, Chinese dialect, genetic classification

@article{wang04basicWords,
  author={Feng Wang and William S-Y. Wang},
  title={Basic Words and Language Evolution},
  journal={Language and linguistics},
  year={2004},
  volume={5},
  number={3},
  pages={643-662},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/wang04basicWords.html},
  keywords={basic words, rank, Chinese dialect, genetic classification}
}

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