Zipf's Law of Abbreviation: Nuts and Bolts.

So who was Zipf?

This man here:



George Kingsley Zipf was a linguist. He promoted the ideas now called Zipf's Law (of which more another time) and also Zipf's Law of Abbreviation.

Zipf's Law of Abbreviation says that the more frequently a word is used, the shorter it is likely to be.

Zipf talked about the principle of least effort, which is the idea that people will always try to make their communications as efficient and accurate as possible: basically, no one wants to spend time and tongue waggles on something if they can get across their message more easily.*

Zipf's Law of Abbreviation looks right, and it feels right (for the languages I know, at least). 

But is it true?

Well, Christian Benz of the University of Tuebingen and Ramon Ferrer-i-Concho of the Universtat Politècnico de Catalunya have analysed 1262 texts in 986 languages from eighty different language families (including Zaparoan, Uralic and Muskogaan) and found that in every case it is true.

So, yes, it's therefore almost certainly a universal feature of all languages.

And so now we can all preen ourselves on being efficient users of our languages.

I mean, it's nothing to do with being impatient and lazy, is it?

Word To Use Today: any you like, but do notice that the ones you use most will be short!

*Though there are those among us who seem to fear that if they stop talking their mouths will seize up. 

Ha! If only!