Analysis and synthesis of the distribution of consonants over languages: a complex network approach

Authors:
Monojit Choudhury;Animesh Mukherjee;Anupam Basu;Niloy Ganguly
Affiliations:
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur;Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur;Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur;Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Venue:
COLING-ACL '06 Proceedings of the COLING/ACL on Main conference poster sessions
Year:
2006

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Abstract

Cross-linguistic similarities are reflected by the speech sound systems of languages all over the world. In this work we try to model such similarities observed in the consonant inventories, through a complex bipartite network. We present a systematic study of some of the appealing features of these inventories with the help of the bipartite network. An important observation is that the occurrence of consonants follows a two regime power law distribution. We find that the consonant inventory size distribution together with the principle of preferential attachment are the main reasons behind the emergence of such a two regime behavior. In order to further support our explanation we present a synthesis model for this network based on the general theory of preferential attachment.