How Many Consonant Pairs Do We Actually Use?

Of all possible consonant pairs, how many are actually used in the English language?

The question came up at a party during a disappointing Ouija board session where the spirits conjured gibberish like "QHPEV." Someone wondered aloud how difficult it was to pick a valid pair of consonants at random. We suspected most were invalid.

This is a nice little problem for the unix text processing toolset. I used the 2006 Scrabble Tournament Word List because /usr/share/dict/words contains many proper names and non-words. To get the count:

curl https://norvig.com/ngrams/TWL06.txt |
sed -nEe 's/(..)/\1\n/gp; s/\n//g; s/^.//; s/(..)/\1\n/gp;' |
grep '[^AEIOUY][^AEIOUY]' |
sort -u |
wc -l

A quick rundown of the shell pipeline:

There are 20 consonants in the language after removing AEIOUY, so that makes 400 possible pairs of consonants. Surprisingly, the count comes to 320, so 80% of all consonant pairs are in use!

Finding Example Words

If, like me, you're incredulous about this 80% number, then the next thing to do is report an example word for each consonant pair. How can GJ and ZD appear in real words?

We can modify the pipeline like so:

< TWL06.txt \
sed -nEe 's/(..)/\1\n/gp; s/\n//g; s/^.//; s/(..)/\1\n/gp;' |
grep '[^AEIOUY][^AEIOUY]' |
sort -u |
xargs -n1 sh -c \
  'printf "%s " "$0"; exec grep --color -m1 "$0" TWL06.txt'

This is inefficient. It re-greps the wordlist file 320 times. But computers are fast, and doing the stupid simple thing is also a core tenet of the unix philosophy ("when in doubt, use brute force"). After a moment you'll see results:

BB ABBA
BC ABCOULOMB
BD ABDICABLE
BF ABFARAD
BG CRABGRASS
BH ABHENRIES
BJ ABJECT
BK BABKA
BL ABATABLE
BM ABMHO
BN ABNEGATE
BP BOMBPROOF
BR ABBREVIATE
BS ABCOULOMBS
BT BOBTAIL
BV ABVOLT
BW ABWATT
BZ SUBZERO
CB ECBOLIC
CC ACCEDE
CD ANECDOTA
CH ABRACHIA
CK ABACK
CL ACCLAIM
CM ACMATIC
CN ACNE
CP SECPAR
CQ ACQUAINT
CR ACCREDIT
CS ACADEMICS
CT ABACTERIAL
CW COLICWEED
CZ CZAR
DB BANDBOX
DC BEDCHAIR
DD ADD DF AIDFUL
DG ABRIDGE
DH ACIDHEAD
DJ ADJACENCE
DK BODKIN
DL ABASEDLY
DM ADMAN
DN ABSTRACTEDNESS
DP BALDPATE
DQ BEDQUILT
DR ACHLORHYDRIA
DS ABFARADS
DT BANDWIDTH
DV AARDVARK
DW AARDWOLF
DZ ADZ
FB GOOFBALL
FC BEEFCAKE
FD CHEFDOM
FF AFF
FG AFGHAN
FH HALFHEARTED
FJ FJELD
FK OFFKEY
FL ACRIFLAVINE
FM ENFEOFFMENT
FN ALOOFNESS
FP HALFPENCE
FR AFFRAY
FS AIRPROOFS
FT ABAFT
FW BEEFWOOD
GB BOGBEAN
GC DOGCART
GD AMYGDALA
GF BAGFUL
GG ABEGGING
GH AARGH
GJ GJETOST
GK BANGKOK
GL ABIDINGLY
GM ABRIDGMENT
GN ACCEPTINGNESS
GP BAGPIPE
GR ABOVEGROUND
GS ABLINGS
GT BANGTAIL
GV DOGVANE
GW BAGWIG
GZ ZIGZAG
HB AITCHBONE
HC AHCHOO
HD ARCHDEACON
HF ARCHFIEND
HG BEACHGOER
HH AARRGHH
HJ HIGHJACK
HK BABUSHKA
HL ACHLORHYDRIA
HM ABASHMENT
HN AMATEURISHNESS
HP ARCHPRIEST
HQ EARTHQUAKE
HR ACHROMAT
HS AAHS
HT ABOUGHT
HV BOSCHVARK
HW ARCHWAY
HZ MACHZOR
JD SLOJD
JJ HAJJ
JK PIROJKI
JN JNANA
JR HIJRA
JS RIJSTAFEL
KB ANTIKICKBACK
KC BACKCAST
KD BACKDATE
KF BACKFIELD
KG BACKGAMMON
KH ANKH
KJ BLACKJACK
KK BOOKKEEPER
KL ANKLE
KM ATTACKMAN
KN ACKNOWLEDGE
KP BACKPACK
KR BACKREST
KS AARDVARKS
KT BACKTRACK
KV AKVAVIT
KW ANTICLOCKWISE
LB ALB
LC ACETYLCHOLINE
LD ABUILDING
LF AARDWOLF
LG ALGA
LH ALLHEAL
LJ KABELJOU
LK ALKAHEST
LL ABDOMINALLY
LM ABELMOSK
LN ACCIDENTALNESS
LP ALP
LQ CALQUE
LR ALREADY
LS AALS
LT ABVOLT
LV AARDWOLVES
LW AGALWOOD
LX CALX
LZ BRULZIE
MB ABCOULOMB
MC ARMCHAIR
MD DUMDUM
MF AIMFUL
MG FILMGOER
MH ABMHO
MJ CIRCUMJACENT
MK BOOMKIN
ML AIMLESS
MM ACCOMMODATE
MN ALMNER
MP ABAMP
MQ CUMQUAT
MR ALUMROOT
MS ABLEISMS
MT AMTRAC
MV CIRCUMVALLATE
MW BANTAMWEIGHT
MZ HAMZA
NB BEANBAG
NC ABERRANCE
ND ABANDON
NF ANFRACTUOSITIES
NG AAHING
NH ALPENHORN
NJ BANJAX
NK ANANKE
NL ACTIONLESS
NM ABANDONMENT
NN AGINNER
NP AFFENPINSCHER
NQ BANQUET
NR ABHENRIES
NS ABANDONS
NT ABANDONMENT
NV ANTICONVULSANT
NW BETWEENWHILES
NX ANTIANXIETY
NZ APOENZYME
PB CHAPBOOK
PC CAMPCRAFT
PD CLAMPDOWN
PF CAMPFIRE
PG CAMPGROUND
PH ACALEPH
PJ CHEAPJACK
PK BUMPKIN
PL ACCOMPLICE
PM ANTIDEVELOPMENT
PN ACAPNIA
PP AIRDROPPED
PR ACUPRESSURE
PS ABAMPS
PT ABRUPT
PW DEEPWATER
QS BUQSHA
QW QWERTY
RB ABSORB
RC ACRITARCH
RD AARDVARK
RF AIRFARE
RG AARGH
RH ACHLORHYDRIA
RJ ALFORJA
RK AARDVARK
RL ACTORLY
RM ABNORMAL
RN ABORNING
RP ABSORPTANCE
RQ ARQUEBUS
RR AARRGH
RS ABANDONERS
RT ABORT
RV ACERVATE
RW AFTERWARD
RZ BILHARZIA
SB AMPHISBAENA
SC ABSCESS
SD ASDIC
SF ARMSFUL
SG ALMSGIVER
SH ABASH
SJ CROSSJACK
SK ABELMOSK
SL ABSTEMIOUSLY
SM ABLEISM
SN ABSTEMIOUSNESS
SP ACROSPIRE
SQ ANTIMOSQUITO
SR ASRAMA
SS ABBESS
ST ABIOGENIST
SV AASVOGEL
SW ANSWER
SZ GROSZ
TB ANTBEAR
TC ABBOTCIES
TD CANTDOG
TF ARTFUL
TG BATGIRL
TH ABSINTH
TJ BOOTJACK
TK CATKIN
TL ABERRANTLY
TM ABETMENT
TN ABJECTNESS
TP AGITPROP
TQ COTQUEAN
TR ABSTRACT
TS ABANDONMENTS
TT ABATTIS
TV BODDHISATTVA
TW ARTWORK
TZ BLINTZ
VD HAVDALAH
VG AVGAS
VK SOVKHOZ
VL GRAVLAKS
VN CZAREVNA
VR BAHUVRIHI
VS DEVS
VV CHIVVIED
VZ EVZONE
WB BAWBEE
WC BAWCOCK
WD BAWD
WF AWFUL
WG BELOWGROUND
WH ANTIWHALING
WJ BLOWJOB
WK AWKWARD
WL ACKNOWLEDGE
WM AWMOUS
WN ADOWN
WP BLOWPIPE
WR ANTIWRINKLE
WS ADVOWSON
WT ANTIGROWTH
WW ARROWWOOD
WZ BLOWZED
XB BOXBALL
XC BOXCAR
XD SEXDECILLION
XF BOXFISH
XG FLUXGATE
XH BOXHAUL
XL AXLE
XM AFFIXMENT
XN COMPLEXNESS
XP BLAXPLOITATION
XQ EXQUISITE
XS AXSEED
XT ADMIXT
XV POXVIRUS
XW BOXWOOD
ZB JAZZBO
ZC BUZZCUT
ZD SAMIZDAT
ZG FIZGIG
ZH MUZHIK
ZJ MUZJIK
ZK BLITZKRIEG
ZL AZLON
ZM GIZMO
ZN BIZNAGA
ZP CHUTZPA
ZQ MEZQUIT
ZS BRITZSKA
ZT FUZZTONE
ZV MITZVAH
ZW BUZZWIG
ZZ ABUZZ
Posted by Alan on Sunday, February 26, 2012.