Almost all languages ​​follow Zipf’s mathematical law. Nobody knows why

In the vast majority of languages, the most common word is used about twice as much as the second most common word, three times as much as the third, and so on. The strange phenomenon remains unexplained

Despite humanity’s belief in the unpredictability of free will, linguistics challenges this common notion with a peculiar statistical phenomenon known as Zipf lei.

This principle suggests that word frequency in most languages ​​follows a predictable pattern, and the mystery of why it remains so continues to baffle linguists and scientists.

First observed by linguist George Kingsley Zipf more than 80 years ago, the law postulates that the most common word in a language is used approximately twice as long as the second word most common, three times more than the third, and so on.

This creates a power law distribution of word frequency, expressed mathematically as f(r)∝r-αwhere f is the frequency of the word, ra its classification and α the exponent, explains the .

This is not an anomaly, as Zipf’s law applies to most human languages. Surprisingly, even extends to undeciphered writings as or Voynich Manuscript. Great texts, like The Origin of Speciesby Charles Darwin, or Hamletby Shakespeare, also present this pattern, reinforcing its ubiquity.

The reasons behind this phenomenon remain speculative. A theory by Zipf himself attributes this to cognitive efficiency: speakers minimize effort by frequently using common words, while listeners rely on less common words for clarity.

Another hypothesis suggests a “snowball effect”, in which the most used words gain popularity over time due to their widespread adoption.

The consistency of the law is as intriguing as it is fascinating. The pattern does not appear to reference the meaning or function of a word, leaving its origins in the realm of speculation.

For those interested, you can test the principle by analyzing the frequency of words in a long text. The results can challenge the notion of free willsince even personal writing conforms to this impressive predictability.

Is this the final proof of what?