Help with Hindi, or, how far out lexically can related languages be?

[Lyle Campbell]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Dear HISTLING folks,

Readers of the list might find the following of interest, though I'm
seeking help, with Hindi.  I'm attempting to put together a Swadesh list
for the purpose of showing just how different languages known to be
related can become lexically.  Unfortunately, I have access to only very
limited Hindi sources (for example in none does a word for 'louse'
occur).  The help I am seeking is (1) Hindi equivalents to the English
forms, and corrections of errors in those listed below (unfortunately
the diacritics for nasalization and retroflex, palatal C's, etc. will
not come through in those listed here [seen as "8" or dots or @, and
other funny stuff], but are not a problem to be corrected).   (2)
Cognates.  I have made my best attempt based on very limited sources to
state which are cognates and which not, but would be grateful for
help/corrections of the codings I have given for cognate status.  I fear
some that I suspect of being true cognates are in fact accidental
similarities while I must be missing some true cognates that will appear
here with the wrong code.
(Hans Henrick Hock has made similar points in several publications using
Hindi data, though not restricted to the Swadesh list.)
It is interesting to note that there are only 4 or 5 true cognates that
would be recognized by lexical inspection, perhaps 10 or 12 that might
be accepted, with generous criteria of phonetic similarity.  (The exact
number depends on cognate status, of which I am not fully certain for
some forms.)  
 
Many thanks,
Lyle 
-------------------------
What I have written is:
 Consider the comparisons of English-Hindi words on the Swadesh 100-word
list; I mark the forms with the following codes before the numbers: 
+:  true cognate which would be recognized by the methods utilized by
global etymologists
+?:  true cognate which might be accepted by global etymologists, though
are by no means obvious
-:   non-cognate form which would nevertheless be accepted by the methods
-?:  non-cognate form which perhaps would be accepted by the methods,
though it should not be
#:   true cognates which would be missed by the methods of global etymology
#?:  true cognates which very likely would be missed by the methods,
though perhaps not:
   English	Hindi
1 I		mai)   (but see me)
2 you 		a:p (polite), tum, tu: (informal)
#3 we		ham  (cf. Sanskrit vayam ‘we’) 
4 this		yah
5 that		vah
+? 6 what	kya: (certainly not clear from modern English [w´t] alone)
+? 7 who	kaun  (certainly not clear from modern English [hu] alone)
+8 not	nahi) 
9 all		sab 
10 many	bahut
11 one	e:k
+12 two	do:
-? 13 big	bar•a:
-? 14 long	lamba:
15 small	chot•a: 
16 woman	stri:, aurat
17 man	a:dmi:, purus8
18 person 	vyakti:
19 fish	machli:
20 bird	paks at i:
21 dog	kutta:
22 louse	?
23 tree	pe:r•
24 seed	bi:j
25 leaf	patta:, patra
26 root	mu:l
27 bark	chha:l(f.)/post/kha:l
29 flesh	mã:s
30 blood	xu:n, lahu
31 bone	had8d8i: 
32 egg	an•d•a:
33 grease	charbi/chikna:'i	
#34 horn	si):g
35 tail		dum/pu):chh
-36 feather	par 
37 hair	ba:l 
#38 head	sir
39 ear		kan
-40 eye	ã:kh
+?41 nose	na:k
+?42 mouth	mu)h
+?43 tooth	da):t
44 tongue	ji:bh
45 claw	chã:gul/na:xun/pã:jah
#?46 foot	pã:v, pair 
+?47 knee	ghut8na
-48 hand	ha:th
-?49 belly	pe:t8  
50 neck	gardan
51 breast	chha:ti:
52 heart	dil
53 liver	jigar/kaleyja
54 drink	pi:-
55 eat		kha:-
56 bite	ka:t•-
57 see		de:kh-
58 hear	sun-
#59 know	ja:n-  (certainly not clear from modern English [nou] alone)
60 sleep	so:-
61 die		mar-
62 kill		ma:r-/ma:r d8a:l-na:/
63 swim	tair- 
64 fly		ur8-
65 walk	chal- ‘walk’, ja:-  ‘walk, go’
66 come	a:-
-67 lie		let•-
68 sit		bait•h-
69 stand	khar•a ‘standing’
70 give	de:-
71 say		kah-
-72 sun	su:raj, su:rya
73 moon	chã:d, cha:ndra
+74 star	ta:r, sita:ra:
75 water	pa:ni:
76 rain	ba:ris@
77 stone	patthar
78 sand	ba:lu/reyg/reyt
79 earth	zami:n, prithvi:
80 cloud	ba:dal
81 smoke	dhuã:
82 fire		a:g
83 ash		ra:kh/xa:k
84 burn	jal-
-85 path	pagd8an8d8i:, pa:th
86 mountain	paha:r•
87 red		la:l
-?88 green	hara:
89 yellow	pi:la:
90 white	safe:d
91 black	ka:la:
92 night	ra:t
93 hot		garm  
94 cold	t•han•d•a:
+?95 full	pu:ra:
96 good	accha:
+?97 new	naya:
98 round	go:l
99 dry		su:kha:
+100 name	na:m