From: IN%"linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu" "The Linguist List" 24-APR-1993 06:02:01.15 To: IN%"LINGUIST@TAMVM1.BITNET" "Multiple recipients of list LINGUIST" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-4-294. Fri 23 Apr 1993. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 154 -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 93 10:25:35 BST From: "J.J. Higgins" Subject: Phoneme frequency list RP PHONEMES AND MINIMAL PAIRS As a by-product of my electronic search for minimal pairs, I have generated a frequency list of RP-phonemes in the Advanced Learners Dictionary which colleagues might find interesting. I would be grateful to anybody who could point me towards any similar work on sounds in transcriptions of speech. By the way, I now have about thirty minimal pair lists derived from the pronunciation field in the electronic ALD, and have edited and annotated about ten of these. In the long run I hope to create all the 480 or so lists that are theoretically possible, just for the sake of statistical comparison. Meanwhile anyone who wants to see a particular list can get in touch; I can e-mail it, and will generate the list if it does not exist yet. John Higgins, University of Bristol J.Higgins@bristol.ac.uk ********************************************************************* RP phonemes in the Advanced Learner's Dictionary (1973 electronic edition with Roger Mitton's additions--text 710 in the Oxford Text Archive). Total number of dictionary entries: 70646 Alvey-RP Keyword Total Words % of wds rank Vowels 1 i bead 6721 6525 9.24% 9 2 I bid 51830 37729 53.41% 1 3 e bed 11312 10940 15.49% 5 4 & bad 11603 11149 15.78% 3 5 A bard 4215 4141 5.86% 14 6 0 pot 7960 7747 10.97% 6 7 O port 4730 4627 6.55% 12 8 U put 1977 1959 2.77% 17 9 u boot 4794 4743 6.71% 11 10 V bud 7124 6917 9.79% 8 11 3 bird 3095 3083 4.36% 15 12 @ about 31009 26813 37.95% 2 13 eI bait 10234 10029 14.20% 4 14 aI bite 7441 7236 10.24% 7 15 oI boy 788 784 1.11% 20 16 aU cow 2179 2135 3.02% 16 17 @U no 6685 6416 9.08% 10 18 I@ beer 4174 4034 5.71% 13 19 e@ bear 965 962 1.36% 19 20 U@ poor 1053 1053 1.49% 18 Consonants 21 p pop 15553 14569 20.62% 9 22 b bib 10907 10420 14.75% 11 23 t teat 34260 29441 41.67% 1 24 d died 21275 19125 27.07% 7 25 k cake 22453 20308 28.75% 6 26 g go 6239 6079 8.60% 14 27 tS chin 2672 2639 3.74% 21 28 dZ judge 3869 3802 5.38% 18 29 f fine 8839 8606 12.18% 13 30 v vine 6007 5859 8.29% 16 31 T think 1602 1591 2.25% 22 32 D then 596 593 0.84% 23 33 s see 33922 28548 40.41% 2 34 z zoo 19972 18808 26.62% 8 35 S shy 6117 6039 8.55% 15 36 Z rouge 334 334 0.47% 24 37 m my 14823 13988 19.80% 10 38 n near 31934 27020 38.25% 3 39 N sing 9181 8958 12.68% 12 40 l low 27373 25435 36.00% 4 41 r raw 23069 21434 30.34% 5 42 w west 4600 4523 6.40% 17 43 j year 3560 3518 4.98% 20 44 h high 3699 3625 5.13% 19 Average vowel phonemes per word: 2.55 Average consonant phonemes per word: 4.43 Average length of word in phonemes: 6.98 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-4-294.