Re-evaluating phoneme frequencies

TL;DR

This study re-evaluates phoneme frequency distributions in 166 Australian languages, confirming Zipf-like patterns among common phonemes and exponential patterns among rare ones, using rigorous statistical methods to deepen understanding of linguistic evolution.

Contribution

It applies maximum likelihood methods to reassess phoneme frequency distributions, revealing nuanced patterns and advancing the understanding of linguistic causal processes.

Findings

Zipfian-like distribution among most frequent phonemes

Exponential distribution among least frequent phonemes

Supports earlier Zipfian findings with refined analysis

Abstract

Causal processes can give rise to distinctive distributions in the linguistic variables that they affect. Consequently, a secure understanding of a variable's distribution can hold a key to understanding the forces that have causally shaped it. A storied distribution in linguistics has been Zipf's law, a kind of power law. In the wake of a major debate in the sciences around power-law hypotheses and the unreliability of earlier methods of evaluating them, here we re-evaluate the distributions claimed to characterize phoneme frequencies. We infer the fit of power laws and three alternative distributions to 166 Australian languages, using a maximum likelihood framework. We find evidence supporting earlier results, but also nuancing them and increasing our understanding of them. Most notably, phonemic inventories appear to have a Zipfian-like frequency structure among their most-frequent members (though perhaps also a lognormal structure) but a geometric (or exponential) structure among the least-frequent. We compare these new insights the kinds of causal processes that affect the evolution of phonemic inventories over time, and identify a potential account for why, despite there being an important role for phonetic substance in phonemic change, we could still expect inventories with highly diverse phonetic content to share similar distributions of phoneme frequencies. We conclude with priorities for future work in this promising program of research.