| ReprintsEach volunteer speaker of a language of interest is first tested with what is known as a Swadesh list. |
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| It is based on the compiling of a core list of 100 or 200 words that Swadesh believed were particularly resistant to change. |
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| Swadesh and others then tried to quantify the method, deriving the date that two languages split from their percentage of shared cognates. |
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| The Swadesh list is intended to ascertain an individual's fluency before he is taken on. |
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| Languages could then be compared on the basis of how many cognate words on a Swadesh list they shared in common. |
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| See Celtic Swadesh lists for the complete list in all the Celtic languages. |
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| The following table shows a selection of nouns from the Swadesh list and indicates their pronunciations and etymologies. |
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