Navigation auf zora.uzh.ch

Search ZORA

ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive)

Migration von ZORA auf die Software DSpace

ZORA will change to a new software on 8th September 2025. Please note: deadline for new submissions is 21th July 2025!

Information & dates for training courses can be found here: Information on Software Migration.

Revisiting Population Size vs. Phoneme Inventory Size

Moran, Steven; McCloy, Daniel; Wright, Richard (2012). Revisiting Population Size vs. Phoneme Inventory Size. Language, 88(4):877-893.

Abstract

In this discussion note we argue against the findings presented in Hay & Bauer 2007, which show a positive correlation between population size and phoneme inventory size. We argue that the positive correlation is an artifact of the authors’ statistical technique and biased data set. Using a hierarchical mixed model to account for genealogical relatedness of languages, and a much larger and more diverse sample of the world’s languages, we find little support for population size as an explanatory predictor of phoneme inventory size once the genealogical relatedness of languages is accounted for.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:06 Faculty of Arts > ISLE Institute
Dewey Decimal Classification:490 Other languages
890 Other literatures
410 Linguistics
Scopus Subject Areas:Social Sciences & Humanities > Language and Linguistics
Social Sciences & Humanities > Linguistics and Language
Language:English
Date:2012
Deposited On:03 Jan 2014 07:27
Last Modified:09 Jul 2025 01:41
Publisher:Linguistic Society of America
ISSN:0097-8507
OA Status:Green
Free access at:Publisher DOI. An embargo period may apply.
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2012.0087
Download PDF  'Revisiting Population Size vs. Phoneme Inventory Size'.
Preview
  • Content: Published Version
  • Language: English
  • Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Metadata Export

Statistics

Citations

Dimensions.ai Metrics
52 citations in Web of Science®
58 citations in Scopus®
Google Scholar™

Altmetrics

Downloads

44 downloads since deposited on 03 Jan 2014
32 downloads since 12 months
Detailed statistics

Authors, Affiliations, Collaborations

Similar Publications