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
request for help
I think I can actually use phoible's database for this...
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)