A Syllable Frequency Count

Abstract

A frequency count of the syllables in an edited list of the 5,000 most common English words generated an unweighted list of the most common 322 syllables in 5,000 words and a list of 290 syllables weighted by the frequency of occurrence of words of which the syllables were constituents. The unweighted list contained 222 nonword-syllables and 100 word-syllables. The weighted list contained 190 word-syllables and 100 non-word syllables. The latter 290 syllables account for 72 percent of the 5,890,868 syllable tokens in the 5,000 most common English words. These lists are seen as a potential base data for the development of curriculum materials in reading, spelling and other areas. They are also seen as a potential base data for investigations and technologies in readability, computer translation, verbal learning and language acquisition.