Appendix talk:Sino-Tibetan Swadesh lists

Missing Tibeto-Burman languages
This page seems misnamed imo, it only contains Sinitic, and no representatives for the Tibeto-Burman branch.--sanna 18:07, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I've begun adding terms in Burmese, which is a Tibeto-Burman language, in IPA. --Hintha 20:46, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

This is true. There are about 446 Tibeto-Burman languages and only 24 Sinitic languages. This page is more helpful if only 1-2 sinitic languages used and a representative # of TB languages are used, ~ 20 would be ideal but unrealistic. Perhaps add 4-5: the most conservative and representatives - Tibetan (written) and Jiarong (rGyarong). Then add the most representative of the Brahmaputra region, such as a Chin and a Tani language.Jfortier (talk) 12:48, 2 April 2013 (UTC)JF


 * (14 years later) Will a Tibeto-Burmese language be added to this list? 173.88.246.138 10:43, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

Problem with chinese
I think, the purpose of a swadesh list is to compare the *phonology* of different languages for the Chinese dialects, everyone is using words from their own dialect. being completely different words and not cognates, they sound completely different. shouldn't we be using literary Chinese or something more in common? -- unsigned


 * I am in the process of reorganizing the chart. I believe your concerns will be adressed by my new format.  However, looking for cognates where none exist is really trying to force a square peg into a round hole.  I believe we should match words which have the same sense meaning.  If they happen to be cognates, then great.  Otherwise, we will have identified where the dialects depart from each other, which is the real objective of the list. -- A-cai 00:14, 19 March 2007 (UTC)


 * A Swadesh list can also be used to determine the changes and number of cognates remaining as a method of determining the difference between two varieties (for example, in lexicostatistics). It is very beneficial to have the local word for these items, rather than a rarely used cognate. Just listing the cognates is misleading as to the difference between varieties. -- MWL

Min Nan accents

 * Information about Min Nan accents (Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou) primarily comes from 愛說台語五千年 (Discovering the ancient origins of Taiwanese, ISBN 9789867101471). Information about Taiwan accents primarily comes from 華台英詞彙句式對照集 (A comparative collection of Mandarin, Taiwanese and English words, ISBN 9571138223).  I have also cross checked these two books against the written Min Nan that I have observed on the web (a special thanks to Min Nan wikipedia!).  Additionally, I have attempted to match all of the above with my own face to face encounters with various native Min Nan speakers.  I have attempted to be as accurate as possible.  Of course, as societies become increasingly mobile, accents seem to get blended together.  If you speak Min Nan, and detect an inaccuracy, please feel free to either leave a note on this discussion page, or if you feel confident enough, you can correct the error yourself.  -- A-cai 05:46, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Min Nan negatives

 * Min Nan has extremely complex syntax for negatives. I tried to capture as much detail in as little space as possible.  I believe that too cursory a treatment would not properly underscore some of the key differences between Min Nan and other dialects such as Mandarin.  My primary reference work for this is 閩南語語法研究試論 (A tentative research of Min Nan grammar, ISBN 9571509485) -- A-cai 14:16, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Cantonese "colloquial readings"

 * in many of the tables there is a row for 'Cantonese - (unspecified)' and 'Cantonese - colloquial'. these would be more correctly identified as "Cantonese - standard" for the previously labeled 'colloquial' and the 'unspecified' one would be better defined as "Cantonese - literary"
 * Cleaned up your post a little by adding headers and indenting. I definitely agree with your point. These "colloquial" markings should be removed, and the other vocabulary should be removed completely as it is not Cantonese but Mandarin. Unless there is objection, I think I shall do it now. 76.69.65.3 21:38, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

Wu/Shanghainese
Great list here! However, there doesn't seem to be any info on the Wu or Shanghainese dialect/language. Hope we can have one soon! &mdash; Stevey7788 23:27, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
 * By the way the Sino-Tibetan Swadesh lists are excellent, and I'm quite impressed by all the time and effort put into this. Good work! &mdash; Stevey7788 23:29, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Direct link from other Swadesh lists
Wouldn't it be a lot more convenient if this list took all its data directly from the respective Swadesh lists? It'd be a lot cleaner when some of the terms needed revision (and they do). Is it even possible? 76.66.22.31 00:37, 22 May 2011 (UTC)