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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
  To Pull
  Black
  To flow
  Bark
  Ashes
  To spit
  Worm
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/21/8471/T1.expansion.html



I 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.


No 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."




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