英語和漢語(普通話)詞庫中的元音頻率比較,尚未見到前人有所討論。本文探討其中所牽涉到的一些理論問題,如國際音標的選擇、輕聲音節的判斷、雙元音是否應該切分,并比較幾種統計方法。研究發現,英語和漢語中介音的出現率都不高,對統計元音出現率影響不大。英語的最高頻元音是[?],其原因是,英語有大量多音節單詞,其中多數都有輕讀音節,而輕讀音節的元音一般都是[?]。在英語和漢語的非輕讀音節中,高元音的總出現率跟非高元音基本相等。英語高元音中,前元音出現率高于后元音、緊元音出現率高于松元音。

There is little literature on a comparative study of vowel frequencies in the lexicons of English and Chinese. We discuss some theoretical issues involved, such as the choice of IPA symbols, how to determine unstressed syllables, and whether a diphthong should count as two vowels. We then discuss different ways of calculating vowel frequencies. Our results show that, in both English and Chinese, pre-nuclear glides occur at fairly low rates, with little effect on vowel frequencies. The most frequent vowel in English is [?], apparently because English has many polysyllabic words, most of which have an unstressed syllable, whose vowel is usually [?]. If we exclude unstressed syllables, then in both English and Chinese, the total frequency of high vowels is similar to that of non-high vowels. Among English high vowels, front vowels occur more frequently than back vowels and tense vowels occur more frequently than lax vowels.