For further information, including the full final version of the list, read the Wikipedia article: Swadesh list.
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.
Credits go to Bart Jacobs for the original 100-word Swadesh list and to Roland Hoyer for his contributions in completing this Swadesh list.
Orthography and spelling
Here the spelling of Curaçao and Bonaire is used, as specified in the Official Papiamentu wordlist of the Fundashon pa Planifikashon di Idioma.
Two different types of orthography and spelling are being used: a more phonetic one in Curaçao and Bonaire, and an etymological orthography is being used in Aruba. Many words in Curaçao and Bonaire end with "u", whereas the same word in Aruba ends with an "o". So the name of the language is called Papiamentu in Curaçao and Bonaire, and Papiamento in Aruba. The letter "k" is often used in Curaçao and Bonaire, where in Aruba the "c" is used. In Curaçao and Bonaire accent marks are used in more official writings.
