Re: The most common sounds (Was: Re: backwards conlanging)

Yoon Ha Lee wrote:

>On Mon, 27 Nov 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:
>
>> Hmm, this gets me thinking... I wonder what are the most common sounds
>> that are found in almost every language? From the few languages that I
>> know, it seems that the following sounds are most common:
>
>Rick Morneau at http://www.srv.net/~ram/essays.html has a table of common
>sounds and percentages.  I've seen his site mentioned here before.  It's
>good stuff; I just ignore all the IAL stuff since I don't really care.
>(Sorry, guys, but it's true.)  Er--the table is consonants and not
>vowels.  Anyone have a site or source for most common vowels?
I seem to recall Rick Morneau dealing with vowels in that same essay he
wrote on the most common sounds. The most common vowels are without a
doubt /i a u/. There are even reports of a few languages with just one
vowel /a/~/@/. That would probably make /a/ the most common vowel.

-kristian- 8)