Swadesh list: a useful list of the most common words, which are essential to most languages and may be used in learning basic communication in other languages and even multiple languages at once.
-
Rosetta Project

* To create an unprecedented platform for comparative linguistic research and education.

* To develop and widely distribute a functional linguistic tool that might help with the recovery of lost or compromised languages in unknown futures.

*To offer an aesthetic object that suggests the immense diversity of human languages as well as the very real threats to the continued survival of this diversity.