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@sbp
Created November 16, 2011 13:24
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Frequency table of English phonemes
773 ɪ
750 ə
547 n
489 t
480 ː
393 d
334 s
327 a
304 l
296 e
285 r
274 m
222 ð
220 ʊ
207 i
188 z
180 k
177 w
156 æ
154 ʌ
154 u
140 v
140 b
131 f
116 j
106 ɒ
105 ɔ
102 h
98 ŋ
85 p
55 ʃ
53 g
52 ɑ
44 θ
31 ʒ
31 ɜ
9 o
@sbp
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sbp commented Nov 16, 2011

consonants

547 n
489 t
393 d
334 s
274 m
222 ð
188 z
180 k
140 v
140 b
131 f
98 ŋ
85 p
55 ʃ
53 g
44 θ
31 ʒ

approximants

304 l
285 r
177 w
116 j
102 h

vowels

773 ɪ
750 ə
480 ː
327 a
296 e
220 ʊ
207 i
156 æ
154 ʌ
154 u
106 ɒ
105 ɔ
52 ɑ
31 ɜ
9 o

@mareyni
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mareyni commented Aug 15, 2018

technically, /h/ is a fricative, and not an approximant

@brubsby
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brubsby commented Jun 26, 2023

what was the methodology here? this gist has a bit of seo optimization so i think it would be beneficial to clarify what biases it might have

@sbp
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sbp commented Aug 29, 2023

Good question. It's been a long time, but according to my notes I used an IPA transcription of The Tempest which no longer appears to be online, and another sample of transcriptions of people pronouncing common words in the UK. I didn't record which source that was. Sorry that I can't be of any further help! If this is something that interests people, I welcome new phonemic frequency survey results (with better sourcing) added to this gist as comments.

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