so ['fɔɪ.bɫ] (phoible) has a list of phonetic segments (sounds) used in all the world's languages. There's approximately 2,160 segments.
1,800 of them are in less than 1% of the world's languages.
Only 19 of them are in more than 50% of languages.
request for help
I'm trying to find somewhere that will tell me the average number of segments in a language, but I can't seem to find anything.
Does anyone know of a database or resource that has an answer to this? I don't need it to be an accurate answer, but I do need it to be justified
request for help
Actually, I'm more interested in the average number of *phonemes* in a language, which should be much easier to know
the average number of segments in a language
I downloaded the phoible database of language inventory sizes, and wrote some code to calculate the average number of segments in a language:
35.2125
the average number of segments in a language
it's important to note: this is only according to what's in phoible's database, it's not a definitive answer (especially since defining segments is.... harder than it seems)
re: request for help
@lizardsquid Somewhere between 30 and 40ish; most of the variety there is in the consonants, given that the /a e i o u/ vowel scheme is extremely common worldwide and substantially larger and smaller vowel schemes are both outliers in their own right (though there are areas where larger vowel schemes are more common, like Northern Europe, West Africa and Southeast Asia - along with smaller ones, like North America and Australia)
request for help
I think I can actually use phoible's database for this...