Wiktionary

Appendix:Hausa Swadesh list

This is a Swadesh list of words in Hausa, compared with definitions in English.

Presentation

edit
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.

List

edit
No. English Hausa
هَوْسَ
1 I ni
2 you (singular) kai
3 he, she, it shi
4 we mu
5 you (plural) ku
6 they su
7 this wannan
8 that wancan
9 here nan
10 there can
11 who wa (interrogative)
12 what me (interrogative)
13 where ina (no movement, interrogative)
14 when yaushe (interrogative)
15 how yaya (interrogative)
16 not ba ...
17 all duk
18 many da yawa
19 some waɗansu
20 few kaɗan
21 other wancan
22 one ɗaya
23 two biyu
24 three uku
25 four huɗu
26 five biyar
27 big babba
28 long dogo
29 wide mai faɗi
30 thick mai kauri
31 heavy mai nauyi
32 small ƙarami
33 short gajere
34 narrow mai ƙunci
35 thin siriri
36 woman mace
37 man (adult male) mutum
38 man (human being) ɗan Adam
39 child yaro (boy), yarinya (girl)
40 wife mata
41 husband miji
42 mother uwa
43 father uba
44 animal dabba
45 fish kifi
46 bird tsuntsu
47 dog kare
48 louse kwarkwa
49 snake maciji
50 worm tsutsa
51 tree itace
52 forest ƙungurmin daji
53 stick sanda
54 fruit ’ya’yan itace
55 seed iri
56 leaf ganye
57 root saiwa
58 bark (of a tree) ɓawon itace
59 flower fure
60 grass ciyawa
61 rope igiya
62 skin fata
63 meat nama
64 blood jini
65 bone ƙashi
66 fat (noun) ƙiba, mai
67 egg ƙwai
68 horn ƙaho
69 tail wutsiya
70 feather gashin tsuntsu
71 hair suma
72 head kai
73 ear kunne
74 eye ido
75 nose hanci
76 mouth baki
77 tooth haƙori
78 tongue (organ) harshe
79 fingernail farce
80 foot ƙafa
81 leg ƙafa
82 knee gwiwa
83 hand hannu
84 wing fiffike
85 belly ciki
86 guts hanji
87 neck wuya
88 back baya
89 breast nono, ƙirji
90 heart zuciya
91 liver hanta
92 to drink sha
93 to eat ci
94 to bite ciza
95 to suck tsotsa
96 to spit tofa
97 to vomit yi amai
98 to blow busa, hura
99 to breathe yi numfashi
100 to laugh yi dariya
101 to see gani
102 to hear ji
103 to know sani
104 to think yi tsammani
105 to smell sansana
106 to fear tsoro
107 to sleep yi barci
108 to live yi rai
109 to die mutu
110 to kill kashe
111 to fight yi faɗa
112 to hunt yi farauta
113 to hit buga
114 to cut yanka
115 to split raba
116 to stab soka
117 to scratch karce
118 to dig haƙa
119 to swim yi iyo
120 to fly tashi
121 to walk yi tafiya a ƙas
122 to come zo
123 to lie (as in a bed) yi kwanciya (action), kwanta (state)
124 to sit zauna (action, state)
125 to stand miƙe tsaye (action), tsaya (state)
126 to turn (intransitive) juya
127 to fall faɗi
128 to give ba
129 to hold riƙe
130 to squeeze matsa
131 to rub goge
132 to wash wanke
133 to wipe shafa
134 to pull ja
135 to push tura
136 to throw jefa
137 to tie ɗaura
138 to sew ɗinka
139 to count ƙidaya
140 to say ce
141 to sing rera waƙa
142 to play yi wasa
143 to float taso kan ruwa
144 to flow gudana
145 to freeze daskara
146 to swell kumbura
147 sun rana
148 moon wata
149 star tauraro
150 water ruwa
151 rain ruwan sama
152 river kogi
153 lake tabki
154 sea teku
155 salt gishiri
156 stone dutse
157 sand rairayi
158 dust ƙurar ƙasa
159 earth kasa
160 cloud gajimare
161 fog hazo
162 sky sama
163 wind iska
164 snow ƙanƙara
165 ice ayis, galas
166 smoke hayaƙi
167 fire wuta
168 ash toka
169 to burn ƙone
170 road haniya
171 mountain babban dutse
172 red ja
173 green kore
174 yellow rawaya
175 white fari
176 black baƙi
177 night dare
178 day rana, yini
179 year shekara
180 warm mai ɗumi
181 cold mai sanyi
182 full cikakke
183 new sabo
184 old tsoho
185 good mai kyau
186 bad maras kyau
187 rotten ruɓaɓɓe
188 dirty mai dauɗa
189 straight miƙaƙƙe
190 round mai da’ira
191 sharp (as a knife) mai kaifi
192 dull (as a knife) maras kaifi
193 smooth mai santsi
194 wet jiƙaƙƙe
195 dry maras laima
196 correct madaidaici
197 near kusa da
198 far mai nisa
199 right dama
200 left hagu
201 at a, wurin
202 in a, cikin
203 with da
204 and da, kuma
205 if in, idan
206 because don
207 name suna
  • Orthography :

No diacritics showing tones or length of vowels are used; orthography is the one currently used outside the dictionaries.

See also

edit

Bibliography

edit
  • Hausa-English English-Hausa Dictionary (Nicholas Awde), Hippocrene Books, New York 1996, →ISBN
  • Les langages de l'humanité (Michel Malherbe), Robert Laffont, Paris 1995 - →ISBN

Further reading

edit
Swadesh lists
Individual languages
Language families, family branches, and geographic groupings
Constructed languages
Reconstructed proto-languages
(edit this template)
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Appendix:Hausa_Swadesh_list&oldid=78530602"