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The 23 words from the PNAS paper (Table 1): Thou I Not That We To give Who This What Man/male Ye Old Mother To hear Hand Fire
by dancing_shark 9y ago
The 23 words from the PNAS paper (Table 1):
Thou
I
Not
That
We
To give
Who
This
What
Man/male
Ye
Old
Mother
To hear
Hand
Fire
To Pull
Black
To flow
Bark
Ashes
To spit
Worm
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/21/8471/T1.expansion.html http://www.pnas.org/content/110/21/8471/T1.expansion.html
- pcrh 9y agoI wonder how many of those would survive multiple hypothesis testing. That is, there are bound to be a number of phonetically similar words that happen to have similar meanings in two different languages. They may not however have common historical roots.
- thedailymail 9y agoNo idea if this list will stand the test of time, but I tried making some minimal ultra-conserved sentences using all of the words. Lots of pronouns, plus some very specific and limited sets of nouns and verbs make it a fun challenge. [Unlisted words bracketed.] 1) "Hear ye! I, [a] man who[se] hand gives this fire [to] bark. What black ashes! Not thou old mother, that pulls the worm and spits. We flow." 2) "We, man [and] old mother, hand-pull black bark. Worm that spits fire, not ashes, flows. This, what I give ye, thou who hear." 3) "Black, old, male mother pulls worm, not spits fire [or] ashes. I give thou who hear what flows [to] ye."