From: suzmccarth
Message: 5428
Date: 2005-08-18
>Here are the frequencies for the Vai text in WWS. It is an early
> I worked out the frequencies of the various syllables in the Vai
>text
> in the VUP, trying (but failing) to filter out topic-related words
> like _Vai_, _kpolo_ and d_<eN. There was reasonable accord between
> the frequencies I got and what syllables appear in the 'Ndole
> syllabary'. About 80 different syllables are used in the Vai text
>in
> the proposal - text in illustrations and titles of references.
> latter made a good warm-up exercise. (I didn't attempt to read theaccord
> tombstone.) The Ndole syllabary has about 118 syllables. The
> is not good for syllables starting with /h/, /w/ or vowellessly -the
> system may have changed here.the
>
> I therefore think gaps owe more to the rareness and importance of
> distinctions. The commonest vowel is /a/, and the Ndole syllabaryeach
> chart shows a full set of contrasts here. Don't forget that the
> syllabary completely ignores tone distinctions.
>
> > Is it just me or does it seem easier to provide full rows for
> > consonant?Right initial position s very important.
>
> It's easier to think that way, but I think it is generally the
> importance of the consonant contrast that determines whether there
> are/were different syllables. The distribution of syllables may
> depend on many historical quirks - initial consonant-vowel
> combinations in English certainly do.
>
> Richard.