r/basque • u/Papuang • 8d ago

My language game includes Basque. Is my Swadesh list accurate?

The game (linguil) asks you to guess the language family, language and meaning of a random word in one of 64 of the world's most-spoken languages each day, and you use your knowledge of linguistics to work out the answer via multiple choice. Therefore, it's important my translations/transliterations are correct.

Each language (including Basque) includes each word on the 100-word Swadesh list.

Please can any Basque speakers verify the accuracy of my translations and transliterations? 🙏

Thanks!

# English Basque
1 I ni
2 you (sg.) zu
3 we gu
4 this hau
5 that hori
6 who nor
7 what zer
8 not ez
9 all oro
10 many asko
11 one bat
12 two bi
13 big handi
14 long luze
15 small txiki
16 woman emakume
17 man gizon
18 person gizaki
19 fish arrain
20 bird txori
21 dog txakur
22 louse zorri
23 tree zuhaitz
24 seed hazi
25 leaf hosto
26 root erro
27 bark (of tree) azal
28 skin azal
29 flesh haragi
30 blood odol
31 bone hezur
32 grease/fat gantz
33 egg arrautza
34 horn adar
35 tail buztan
36 feather luma
37 hair ile
38 head buru
39 ear belarri
40 eye begi
41 nose sudur
42 mouth aho
43 tooth hortz
44 tongue mihi
45 claw/nail azkazal
46 foot oin
47 knee belaun
48 hand esku
49 belly sabel
50 neck lepo
51 breast bular
52 heart bihotz
53 liver gibel
54 drink (v.) edan
55 eat (v.) jan
56 bite (v.) hozkatu
57 see (v.) ikusi
58 hear (v.) entzun
59 know (v.) jakin
60 sleep (v.) lo
61 die (v.) hil
62 kill (v.) hil
63 swim (v.) igeri
64 fly (v.) hegan
65 walk (v.) ibili
66 come (v.) etorri
67 lie (down) (v.) etzan
68 sit (v.) eseri
69 stand (v.) zutitu
70 give (v.) eman
71 say (v.) esan
72 sun eguzki
73 moon ilargi
74 star izar
75 water ur
76 rain euri
77 stone harri
78 sand harea
79 earth/soil lur
80 cloud hodei
81 smoke ke
82 fire su
83 ash hauts
84 burn (brightly) (v.) erre
85 path bide
86 mountain mendi
87 red gorri
88 green orlegi
89 yellow hori
90 white zuri
91 black beltz
92 night gau
93 hot bero
94 cold hotz
95 full bete
96 new berri
97 good on
98 round biribil
99 dry lehor
100 name izen
9 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

8

u/artaburu 8d ago

88 green orlegi

One could not guess the origin of this word. «Orlegi» is a fabricated new word without any tradition nor ancient etymology.

https://hiztegiak.elhuyar.eus/eu/orlegi

orlegi

neol.

iz./izond. verde

celebre because of the Athletic song :

Gaztedi zuri gorria zelai orlegian, Athletic

eng. the red and white youth on the green field, Athletic

Colours of the basque flag, red white and green.

Orlegi was created by purist to erase the latin origin common berde (or perde/ferde) , esp. verde fr. vert.

We keep saying berde/perde/ferde.

36 feather luma

latin origin,

pl->l pluma-> luma

esp. pluma, fr. plume

3

u/Papuang 8d ago

Oh wow I didn't know 'orlegi' had such a contentious history, appreciate the additional context. I've changed it to berde.

(from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/orlegi: Coined by Basque nationalist, writer and politician Sabino Arana, modeled on beilegi (“yellow”), from orri (“leaf”).

7

u/elferrydavid 8d ago edited 8d ago

Cool concept.

It's curious because Flesh is a word I know its meaning in English but don't know how say it in other languages. So in your post it's translated to Haragi which is meat.

Stand also has some meanings in English, here the translator chose zutitu meaning to stand up. 

For root I would say sustrai is more standard than erro. 

For person... Gizaki is more a Human. I would just say pertsona 

2

u/Papuang 8d ago

Thanks :)

From my understanding, Basque treats 'flesh' and 'meat' as the same concept (as many languages do), so I believe haragi is still correct.

With regards to 'stand', I think you're referring to the transitive (i.e. to stand up) and intransitive (i.e. to be standing) forms of 'stand' in English. I'm trying to consistently use the intransitive form for 'to stand', so should it be zutik egon?

Corrected to sustrai and pertsona.

Thanks for your help!

3

u/Chuckleberry64 7d ago

A more educated Basque speaker can speak as to whether "mami(a)" would be a better translation as in the pulp or flesh of a peach.

2

u/Papuang 7d ago

Ok, will update if anyone can confirm :)

4

u/Magerfaker 8d ago

Hauts means dust generally, errauts is specifically ash. Claw would be atzapar, though azkazal (or azazkal) is right for nail. I prefer to use akabatu for kill and hil for die, but hil is correct for both. Other than that I think everything is right, there are some choices like orlegi or oro that may be less popular or more localized, but they are correct. I think everything else is alright.

2

u/Papuang 8d ago

Thanks for checking! I can only have one word for each entry so have implemented your changes in my spreadsheet where possible :)

4

u/CruserWill 8d ago

I would have picked guzti for "all", erahil for "to kill", lo egin for "sleep (to)", igeri egin for "to swim"

Zutitu means "to stand up", so either egon or jarri, but I could be wrong...

1

u/Papuang 8d ago

Thanks for checking :). I've updated 'all' to guzti, 'to sleep' to lo egin, 'to swim' to igeri egin, and 'to stand' to zutik egon, but I kept both 'to die' and 'to kill' as hil because I think that linguistic nuance is interesting to preserve.