Uncommon Letter Combinations
Andefranco
language. Lists segregated by vowel/consonent would be helpful. Can
anyone cite a reference? As an alternative, I could use a list of the
most common 2- and 3-letter combinations found in words. Hope this makes
sense.
Thanks.
Jim Gillogly
In a sample of Usenet, Gutenberg, and Oxford Text Archive sources
totalling 1,429,813 trigraphs, I saw 12,420 different trigraphs out
of the 26^3=17,576 possible trigraphs. Obviously a lot of them (like
qqq) didn't have any examples. I assume you're interested only in
low-frequency trigraphs that do sometimes appear. Here are a few of the
1844 that had exactly one example:
aaj:1 jaj:1 qex:1 zhi:1
aak:1 jaz:1 qfa:1 zhb:1
aax:1 jbo:1 qff:1 zgo:1
abj:1 jbp:1 qfv:1 zgl:1
abk:1 jbv:1 qga:1 zge:1
acg:1 jbw:1 qge:1 zfp:1
afd:1 jcn:1 qgh:1 zfl:1
afp:1 jcp:1 qgi:1 zfe:1
afx:1 jcq:1 qgk:1 zfc:1
agd:1 jcr:1 qgn:1 zfb:1
agf:1 jct:1 qhe:1 zdt:1
agq:1 jda:1 qhf:1 zdo:1
agv:1 jdd:1 qhn:1 zcr:1
agx:1 jdf:1 qho:1 zcp:1
ahg:1 jdg:1 qia:1 zck:1
ahk:1 jdh:1 qib:1 zcd:1
... ... ... ...
Here are the most frequent ones from the same list:
the:22298 eth:4028
ing:9051 ate:3910
and:7997 thi:3868
ion:7722 est:3722
tio:6343 nth:3698
ent:6038 res:3425
tha:5870 ver:3407
ati:5581 all:3382
ere:5155 are:3346
for:4951 rea:3327
hat:4917 pro:3325
her:4818 you:3319
ter:4217 ers:3316
int:4031 ons:3245
I'm sure this isn't exactly what you want, but I'd suggest that the best
way to find the right thing is to roll your own: there's lots of text
available on the Net -- and the easiest place to get colloquial English
with all its warts is on Usenet. I recommend Perl as the tool of choice
to strip off headers and many of the .signatures, as well as to count
your results. I modified my kibozer to gather these stats over a period
of several days from all of several hierarchies. I'd recommend using
the soc.* hierarchy only with care -- it's great if you want to gather
stats on a particular language, as long as you focus your search right.
--
Jim Gillogly
Hevensday, 15 Foreyule S.R. 1995, 06:00
Dr Paul Dale
>I'm looking for a list of rare 2- and 3-letter combinations in the English
>language. Lists segregated by vowel/consonent would be helpful. Can
>anyone cite a reference? As an alternative, I could use a list of the
>most common 2- and 3-letter combinations found in words. Hope this makes
>sense.
I'm not sure how helpful this will be since my frequencies come from a
simple word list rather than from real text.
Rare di-graphs:
Occur once only: fv jb jt kq qq qr vh wj xz
Occur twice: jk jl jm kz pq pz qe tx wq zf zj
I find 50 digraphs that never occur:
bx cj cv cx dx fq fx gq gx hx jc jf jg jq jv jx
jz kx mx px qb qc qd qf qg qj qk ql qm qn qp qt
qv qx qy qz sx vb vf vj vm vp vq vt vw vx wx xj
xx zx
Common di-graphs (with frequencies over 30000):
er 60470 in 57397 es 49250 ti 42250 te 40758
on 38350 an 36490 at 36325 re 35794 al 34661
en 33757 is 33319 ri 32354 st 31721 le 31625
ra 31472 ic 30637
As for trigraphs, I find over 600 unique triples and almost 500 triples
that occur twice. I also find over 9000 triples that do not occur.
As for the most common (those with over 9000 occurances):
ing 23358 ess 13124 ter 12563 ion 12341
ati 12220 nes 10676 ate 10360 tio 9884
ent 9805 ous 9212
Dr Pauli
Paul Dale | Paul...@jcu.edu.au
Computer Centre | +61 77 814 551
James Cook University |
Australia, 4811 | Did you know that there are 41 two letter
| words containing the letter 'a'?
Mike Fee
>Andefranco <andef...@aol.com> wrote:
>>I'm looking for a list of rare 2- and 3-letter combinations in the English
>>language. [snip]
>In a sample of Usenet, Gutenberg, and Oxford Text Archive sources
>totalling 1,429,813 trigraphs, I saw 12,420 different trigraphs out
>of the 26^3=17,576 possible trigraphs. [snip]
>abj:1 jbp:1 qfv:1 zgl:1
^^^\
abject, abjure -> abj:2
--
Mike Fee
M....@irl.cri.nz
Industrial Research Limited
Jim Gillogly
>Jim Gillogly <j...@acm.org> writes:
>
>>In a sample of Usenet, Gutenberg, and Oxford Text Archive sources
>>totalling 1,429,813 trigraphs, I saw 12,420 different trigraphs out
>>of the 26^3=17,576 possible trigraphs. [snip]
>
>>abj:1
> abject, abjure -> abj:2
I didn't run a dictionary through the program -- it gathered stuff only
from connected English -- literary and Usenet -- and evidently nobody used
both of these words. Of course, if I were still running it, your message
and my reply to it would have jacked the count up to 8 at least. My
interest is in cryptanalysis, so I use stats from real language, saving
word lists for more brute-force kinds of searches.
ObPuzzle: what word in "Through the Looking Glass" would have given me
another hit?
Clue: you won't find it in your dictionary, and it doesn't start with "abj".
--
Jim Gillogly
Sterday, 25 Foreyule S.R. 1995, 15:16
Steve Thomas
:ObPuzzle: what word in "Through the Looking Glass" would have given me
:another hit?
[ for the trigraph "abj" ]
:Clue: you won't find it in your dictionary, and it doesn't start with "abj".
The word of which I immediately thought *is* in _The Official Scrabble
Players' Dictionary_ (and presumably in one of its parent dictionaries).
Steve
Brian Tung
> ObPuzzle: what word in "Through the Looking Glass" would have given me
>
> Clue: you won't find it in your dictionary, and it doesn't start with "abj".
SPOILER
I'm just barely remembering this. Isn't the word in "Jabberwocky" and
isn't it "frabjous" or some such?
byron elbows
br...@isi.edu
http://info.broker.isi.edu/brian/
byron elbows' two rules of human nature:
* No one is as weird as they think they are.
* Everyone is weirder than others think they are.
Graeme Thomas
> ObPuzzle: what word in "Through the Looking Glass" would have given me
>
> Clue: you won't find it in your dictionary,
which implies that it is in _Official Scrabble Words_, and hence in _The
Chambers Dictionary_. It is also in the American "Official Scrabble
Players Dictionary_, which implies that it is in one of the source
dictionaries for that book, probably Merriam-Websters _10th New
Collegiate Dictionary_.
Besides, it is a common word -- it is precisely the sort of word that
one uses to describe the joyousness felt upon learning that one's
offpring has killed a fabulous monster.
Graeme
brian odom
>Jim Gillogly <j...@acm.org> writes:
>>Andefranco <andef...@aol.com> wrote:
>>>I'm looking for a list of rare 2- and 3-letter combinations in the English
>>>language. [snip]
a rare 2 letter combination involving a vowel is iw. i can think of 2 words
with it. periwinkle and kiwi. i'm sure there are others. of course you
can cheat with this. q + any letter other than u, funky vowel combinations
(iu, oe, etc.) and double letters (yy, jj, etc.)
--
brian odom
for a good 2 letter combination tongue twister, try saying hx 5 times fast
in a row....
Mike Fee
>>>>I'm looking for a list of rare 2- and 3-letter combinations in the English
>>>>language. [snip]
>a rare 2 letter combination involving a vowel is iw. i can think of 2 words
>with it. periwinkle and kiwi. i'm sure there are others.
"iwi" is a Maori word which would be acceptable as a part of New Zealand
English.
Jonathan Carter
> Graeme
The word is "frabjous", from "Jabberwocky". I still am surprised that
Scrabble let it go.
Caloo! Caleigh!
--
Jonathan Carter --- /| |\
jca...@mc.edu ------- | | arter
******* --- \|on |/
Darren Rigby
>"brian odom" <bo...@cherry.ucs.indiana.edu> writes:
>>>>Andefranco <andef...@aol.com> wrote:
>
5>language. [snip]
>
>>a rare 2 letter combination involving a vowel is iw. i can think of 2 words
>>with it. periwinkle and kiwi. i'm sure there are others.
>
>"iwi" is a Maori word which would be acceptable as a part of New Zealand
>English.
>--
>Mike Fee
SKIWEAR
djr={gridby, dart, axoq}
Dafydd Price Jones
writes:
> > >>a rare 2 letter combination involving a vowel is iw. i can think of 2
words
> > >>with it. periwinkle and kiwi. i'm sure there are others.
> > >
> > >"iwi" is a Maori word which would be acceptable as a part of New
Zealand
> > >English.
> >
>
> contrariwise, handiwork, taxiway
>
I can't do any better, but the computer can! Here is a list generated by
the freeware program, Tea.
> Tiw iwis kiwi diwan kiwis Diwali diwans
siwash Taiwan antiwar periwig taniwha taxiway
waiwode wysiwyg bi-weekly demi-wolf golliwog obi-woman
periwigs polliwig polliwog sei whale taniwhas taxiways
waiwodes williwaw bailiwick galliwasp golliwogs
handiwork kittiwake kiwi fruit polliwigs polliwogs
sei whales tri-weekly williwaws bailiwicks
bi-weeklies duniwassal galliwasps handiworks
kittiwakes periwigged periwinkle pilliwinks
semi-weekly duniwassals periwigging periwinkles
carriwitchet contrariwise periwig-pated pilliwinkses
semiwater-gas carriwitchets lapis lazuli ware spaghetti western
spaghetti westerns
Cheers,
Dafydd. (Listen out for records by Dafydd IWan!!)
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Dafydd Price Jones Post-e: dafy...@dafyddpj.demon.co.uk
|
| Nadolig Brandigeidfran! |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen H. Landrum
> >>a rare 2 letter combination involving a vowel is iw. i can think of 2 words
> >>with it. periwinkle and kiwi. i'm sure there are others.
> >
> >"iwi" is a Maori word which would be acceptable as a part of New Zealand
> >English.
>
> SKIWEAR
contrariwise, handiwork, taxiway
--
Stephen H. Landrum voice: (415)261-2626 email: slan...@3do.com
System software programmer, M2 graphics division.
For general 3DO questions email customer...@3do.com
XXdant
<dafy...@dafyddpj.demon.co.uk> writes:
>I can't do any better, but the computer can! Here is a list generated by
>the freeware program, Tea.
>
Actually, the rarest letter combination in English is fx. What does your
computer program gererate for that?
--
Dan Tilque
PS Yes, I know that F/X is a rebus for effects (as in movies). It doesn't
count.
Dafydd Price Jones
(XXdant) writes:
> Actually, the rarest letter combination in English is fx. What does your
> computer program gererate for that?
>
> PS Yes, I know that F/X is a rebus for effects (as in movies). It doesn't
> count.
>
Guess what? A blank screen! A pity there wasn't a king called Olaf-Xerxes
who did something outrageous, thus becoming a verb (such as bobbit).
Have a cool yule,
Dafydd.
Greg Dionne
Sigh... let's see ...
unix% egrep iw docs/dict/web2
Astakiwi
Attiwendaronk
Chilliwack
Chiwere
Fezziwig
Kiwai
Kiwanian
Kiwanis
Siwan
Siwash
Taiwanhemp
Tiwaz
Waiwai
aiwan
antiwar
antiwarlike
antiwaste
antiwedge
antiweed
antiwit
awikiwiki
awiwi
bailiwick
baniwa
beperiwigged
biwa
biweekly
biwinter
carriwitchet
contrariwise
demiwivern
demiwolf
disperiwig
diwata
friendliwise
galliwasp
golliwogg
handiwork
iiwi
iwa
iwaiwa
iwis
jinniwink
kaiwhiria
kaiwi
kittiwake
kiwi
kiwikiwi
lestiwarite
liwan
midewiwin
paiwari
periwig
periwigpated
periwinkle
periwinkled
periwinkler
pilliwinks
pinniwinkis
polliwig
polliwog
porokaiwhiria
porriwiggle
semiwaking
semiwarfare
semiweekly
semiwild
semiwoody
siwash
subbailiwick
triweekly
twistiways
twistiwise
waiwode
williwaw
wulliwa
That should get you started...
-Greg O /
------------------------X--cut-here--------------------------------------------
Gregory E. Dionne O \ dio...@icd.teradyne.com
Colin R. Leech
Greg Dionne (dio...@icd.teradyne.com) writes:
> Sigh... let's see ...
>
> unix% egrep iw docs/dict/web2
The easy shortcut, huh? :-)
>[lots deleted]
> antiweed
Hey - my lawn could use some of that!
The fact that most of the words you found are pretty obscure tells me that
it is, in fact, a rare combination.
--
##### |\^/| Colin R. Leech = ag...@freenet.carleton.ca
##### _|\| |/|_ If you can't return a favour, pass it on.
##### > < Civil engineer by training, transport planner by choice.
##### >_./|\._< Opinions are my own. Consider them shareware if you want.