All figures indicate PERCENTAGES. - Taking any one letter, as A: On the left, it was contacted | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chart Showing FREQUENCIES of English DIGRAMS - Prepared by O. PHELPS MEAKER
(Actual Count Made on 10,000 Letters of Literary Text).
To learn the frequency of any digram, find its first letter at the top, find its second | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SOME FOREIGN LANGUAGE DATA NOTE: Frequencies of letters, and their order, are fixed quantities in any language. Group frequencies, however. are fairly constant in every language. (These may be computed from the Comparative Table for any desired group in the languages given.) Of the material which follows, portions came from Lange and Soudart, and from Valerio, but exact sources were not in every case furnished to the author. G E R M A N Order of single letters: E N I R S A D T U G H O L B M C F W Z K V P (J Q X Y) Order of digrams: EN ER CH DE GE EI IE IN NE ND BE EL TE UN ST DI NO UE SE AU RE HE Order of trigrams: EIN ICH DEN DER TEN CHT SCH CHE DIE UNG GEN UND NEN DES BEN RCH Order of tetragrams: ICHT KEIT HEIT CHON CHEN CHER URCH EICH DERN AUCH SCHA SCHE SCHI SCHO SCHU (Furnished by JOSEPH ARTHOLD). Peculiarities: C is practically always followed by H (or K), and SC by H. Word-length is normally greater than in English. F R E N C H Order of single letters: E A I S T N R U L O D M P C V Q G B F J H Z X Y (K W) Order of digrams: ES EN OU DE NT TE ON SE AI IT LE ET ME ER EM OI UN QU Order of trigrams: ENT QUE ION LES AIT TIO ANS ONT ANT OUR AIS OUS Peculiarities: Q followed by U and a second vowel. Four and five vowels may be found in sequence ("J'ai oui dire.."), but E seldom touches the other vowels. D and M contact E about 75% of the time, and L contacts it over 50% of the time. It is unusual to find more than four consonants in sequence; when five are found in succession, one is almost surely the final S of a plural word. Order of doubled letters: S L M R T N P E C F Order of initials: P A S M C E D T V F R B L G J I Q N O H U Y X Z Order of finals: E S T R N D A I X Z L C U P F Y Average word-length: 4.3 letters. Commonest short words, in order: DE IL LE ET QUE JE LA NE UN LES EN CE SE SON MON PAS LUI ME AU UNE DES SA QUI EST DU |
| I T A L I A N Order of single letters: E A I O N L R T S C D P U M V G H F B Q Z (J X K W Y) Order of digrams: ER ES ON RE EL EN DE DI TI SI AL AN RA NT TA CO Order of trigrams: CHE ERE ZIO DEL ECO QUE ARI ATO EDI IDE ESI IDI ERO PAR NTE STA Peculiarities: Q followed by U and a second vowel. H largely preceded by C, in CHE,CHI, or sometimes by G in GHE GHI. Z most often part of ZIO or NZA. The frequencies of the vowels E A I O often exchange places. Doubling of consonants is very frequent. Order of doubled letters: L T S C R G P N B M Z F V I D Order of initials: S P A C D V T M F I G Q R E B L N O U Z H Order of finals: O E A I (Others, if used: R L D N) Average word-length: 4.5 letters. Commonest short words, in order: LA DI CHE IL NON SI LE UNA LO IN PER UN MI IO PIU DEL MA SE S P A N I S H Order of single letters: E A O S N I R L D U C T M P B H Q G V Y J F Z X (K W) Order of digrams: ES EN EL DE LA OS AR UE RA RE ER AS ON ST AD AL OR TA CO Order of trigrams: QUE EST ARA ADO AQU DEL CIO NTE OSA EDE PER IST NEI RES SDE Peculiarities: Q followed by U and a second vowel. The only doubles are LL, RR, CC, EE, NN, OO, in the order given, but the latter three are very rare. Group frequencies somewhat less stable than in the other languages. Order of initials: C P A S M E D T H V R U N I L B O F Q G J Z Order of finals: O A S E N R D L I Z Average word-length: 4.4 letters. Commonest short words, in order: DE LA EL QUE EN NO CON UN SE SU LAS LOS ES ME AL LO SI MI UNA DEL POR SUS MUY HAY MAS P O R T U G U E S E Order of single letters: A E O R S I N D M T U C L P Q V F G H B J Z X (K W Y) Order of digrams: ES OS DE AS RO EN CO DO RE ER NT SE AD OR AO SA TE AR EM QU UE OD ST Order of trigrams: QUE ENT NTE DES EST ODE ADO CON STA MEN ADE DOS ARA COM Much like Spanish. Spanish cion becomes cao; ll becomes lh. Articles drop the L: os, as, in place of Spanish los, las, etc. |