www.PreBabel.info

240 Root Words
for PreBabel --- the true Universal Language
Copyright © July 2009 by Tienzen (Jeh-Tween) Gong

In the paper PreBabel, it addressed the following issues:

Can a constructed language have the same scope of a natural language?
Can a small set of root words (humanly readable, not machine codes) be found to encode the entire vocabulary of a natural language?
What is the minimum number of root words needed for such an encodings?

These issues were addressed theoretically. Now is the time of "Show me!" I am answering the above issues by showing the "beef" here. I, however, will reiterate some theoretical points first.

First, every kind of encryption is constructing a new language for a natural language. The simplest encryption for English is by moving its first letter to be the last one for every word. This newly encrypted vocabulary is, of course, a constructed language and is identical to the old language in scope. Thus, finding a set of symbols to encode all English words is theoretically practical.

Yet, can such a set of encoding readable by human? And can such a system be learned with 300 hours of study? This paper lists such a set of codes, 240 root words.

Why 240? The entire universe is made of atoms which are the composites of only three particles, proton, neutron and electron, the (p, n, e). However, it is much easier to describe the universe not with the (p, n, e) but with the elements from the periodic table, and there are about 117 of them by now. Furthermore, for biochemists, it is much easier for them by including twenty some amino acids as part of their root word vocabulary. In short, about 200 root words (chemical elements, amino acids, some enzymes, physical forces, etc.) are enough for describing our universe. In fact, the more root words, the easier it is to form sentences. However, too many roots will demand more memory energy to retain them. In compromise, 200 should be a good number as the nature uses about that number for its construction. That is, the 240 is the number that I chose. It can easily be reduced to half. However, the bigger the number makes the job of encoding much easier. If anyone thinks that my choices of those root words are not the best, he is most likely to be right. Yet, I have the right to make my life a bit easier for myself, as I will be the one doing the initial encoding.initial encoding.

The word roots are silent themselves, and they can be pronounced in English, such as

is read as "big step". Those root words are ideographs, and each of them represents an idea or a mental image of an action or an object. Thus, they do form a mnemonic system for memorizing English words (in this example), especially for the ESL students. Now, it goes. The following is the 240 root words for PreBabel -- the True Universal Language.

Roots about the energy of the universe or heaven
1. energy or spirit of heaven, a divide of existence from the pre-existence
2. fully expressed energy or spirit, a divide of space
3. energy in general
4. weak in energy
5. rooted energy (rooted into the ground)
6. flow (from right to left, as conception)
7. deliver to
8. flow (from left to right, as conception)
9. energy being blocked
10. energy being un-blocked
11. human's energy
12. breathe or breathing
13. unable to breathe
Roots about human faculties and actions
1. small step or action
2. big step
3. traveling
4. walking behind ...
5. pacing, walking slowly
6. mouth (also as an individual)
7. hand (in general)
8. beating something with hand
9. left hand (as a weaker hand)
10. top hand or claw (action of gripping)
11. holding with two hands
12. lifting with two hands
13. powerful hand
14. holding something with hand
15. eye(s)
16. eyebrow
17. self
18. backbone (pillar)
19. life body
20. hair
21. man
22. woman
23. mother
24. child or baby
25. body (in general, including the corpse)
26. facial hair
27. humpback
28. heart
29. ear(s)
30. tooth
31. teeth
32. dead man's skull
33. brain
34. baby's head
35. human's head
Roots about objects
- the Natural objects
  - about plants or plant life
    1. grass
    2. plant or related to plants
    3. weed
    4. tree leaf
    5. tree or wood
    6. tree bark
    7. half wood
    8. thickly grown vegetation
    9. bamboo
    10. waving scene of a grain field
    11. grain(s)
    12. just spouting, the tip of spouting
    13. vegetable which keeps growing after being cut
    14. melon(s)
    15. pepper like plant
    16. rice
    17. thick bushes
  - about animal or animal life
    1. cow or ox
    2. sheep
    3. dog like animal
    4. feather
    5. bat like wing
    6. animal's horn
    7. animal's feet
    8. insect or bug
    9. skin
    10. bird's head
    11. short wing bird
    12. animal's head
    13. fish head
    14. flog
    15. bird's head in general (including domesticated birds, such as chicken, duck, goose, etc.)
    16. horse head
    17. tiger head
    18. deer head
    19. ghost head
    20. pig-like animal
    21. cat-like animal
    22. turtle shell
  - other natural objects
    1. stone or rock
    2. Moon
    3. Sun
    4. small hill
    5. fire
    6. mountain
    7. water
    8. ice
    9. rolling hill
    10. meat or biologic
- man made objects and more human actions
  1. man made field (for grain, etc.)
  2. weaving or curling up
  3. half wood (for wood products, such as paper, etc.)
  4. half wood (for lumber, etc.)
  5. flat table
  6. divination or asking gods
  7. a net
  8. a bench
  9. silk
  10. boat
  11. curved wood (man made)
  12. treasure (made of sea shell)
  13. pile of curved wood
  14. measuring cup
  15. carrying
  16. pill
  17. water well
  18. up bringing
  19. livable cliff
  20. gate or door
  21. unit of house
  22. roof
  23. window
  24. curved basket
  25. piercing
  26. food grinding stone
  27. knife
  28. cutting meat off the bone
  29. engineering
  30. meat cooking pot
  31. basin or container
  32. pottery
  33. arrow
  34. warehouse
  35. flag pole
  36. bow
  37. grain field
  38. car or cart
  39. spear
  40. bound book
  41. fighting
  42. King's seal
  43. packing
  44. ax
  45. tile
  46. dust pan
  47. mixing bowl
  48. three leg censer
  49. mending
  50. investigation (by breaking the surface of ...)
  51. lean the head on one side
  52. get off (vehicle or boat)
  53. pretend
  54. working on something
  55. reporting
  56. capture
  57. aggressive in a kind manner
  58. invading
  59. supervising
  60. one minded or whole hearted
  61. open minded
  62. small items of human importance
  63. fending off the evil spirit
  64. camp fire
  65. repeating
  66. attentive
  67. being put down with control
  68. chores
  69. clothes
  70. speech
  71. town or village
  72. tired of, enough
about the quality of objects or the state of situations
1. entering into then stop
2. in stillness while ready to go
3. going out
4. begetting
5. not yet spouting
6. growing with force
7. dividing
8. circled wall, enclosure
9. wild animal's foot print
10. colorful (with pattern)
11. following a path
12. white
13. smallness
14. evening or night
15. sweetness
16. far away from village
17. Heaven or heavenly
18. interfere
19. violating heaven's law
20. permeate
21. self ability, selfish
22. not selfish
23. transform or transformation
24. bucking the heads
25. color
26. flowing (some substances)
27. force
28. ugly
29. crisscross pattern
30. in a state of ready to fall (not yet falling)
31. hanging upside down
32. bone without meat
33. filled up
34. united or union
35. entering
36. covering
37. cover twice
38. cover top and bottom
39. high ground or high place
40. plentiful
41. bad omen
42. direction in space
43. illness
44. flying flag
45. containing
46. hiding something
47. disappearing
48. completion
49. a pile or a crowd
50. calamity
51. fermentation
52. flying in air
53. subordinate
54. filiate piety
55. face off ...
56. something hanging
57. growing nicely, such as a fully opened flower
58. entangle
59. plainness, the color before dyeing
60. worn out clothes
61. place of danger
62. signs from above (gods, heaven or a boss)
63. deeply hidden
64. flying or moving very fast
65. violent actions
66. place of human danger
67. great or greatness
three special action roots
1. do
2. be
3. no, not or opposite
an abstract symbol
1. dot (can be "anything")

With these root words, we are ready to encode English vocabulary into PreBabel words.

A special note: The word roots on this page are in .gif, and they are made by Jason Gong. Thanks, Jason, a great job.