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It's often said that in languages, the syllable-count of words eventually converges to something based on the frequency with which words are used, so that more-commonly-used concepts get words with fewer syllables.
There's an important caveat to this, which I have never seen stated anywhere: the effect is strongly weighted towards vocabulary used by children, especially small children. Hence why "ma", the lowest-entropy word, means mother in so many different languages, and why toddler-concepts are all monosyllables or twice-repeated monosyllables. So, for example. "probability" being 5 syllables isn't just a reflection of it being used, it's also a reflection of an (imo bad) societal judgement that people won't be ready for that word until they're adults.
I don't remember where, but I did see this stated previously, because it's not new to me.
[...]
It's not a societal judgement that kids aren't ready for that word (though perhaps that too), but that it's not necessary for them to survive. And, well, that seems to be true.
4Pattern
1. How long are these words?
probably
likely
chance
maybe
most likely
more often than not
all the time
usually
often
sometimes
if
2. How often do you use probability?
3. Last but not least, have you forgotten
This post is a container for my short-form writing. See this post for meta-level discussion about shortform.