Phoneme inventory size and population size

Language • Vol/Iss. 83(2) • Linguistic Society of America • • Published In • Pages: 388-400 •
By Hay, Jennifer, Bauer, Laurie

Abstract

This study found that the more language speakers there are, the more phonemes in the language. In addition, the more language speakers, the more vowels and consonants. While some language families have more phonemes than others, this did not affect the results. The goal of this paper was only to illustrate a link between the two and the authors hope this work encourages further examination into this relationship.
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: danielle.russell