At 13:06 18/04/2002 +0100, Eric Atwell wrote:
>Does anyone have an earlier citation???
To my knowledge, the first who noticed that rank and frequency were related
by a hyperbolic law was Jean-Baptiste Estoup. He analysed a corpus in order
to determine grapheme frequencies for stenography. I had access to the 3rd
edition (1912) at Bibliotheque Nationale de France, but I think that the
first edition is from 1902. The book was a best-seller in French
stenography for half a century.
Estoup, J.-B. Gammes sténographiques. Recueil de textes choisis pour
l'acquisition méthodique de la vitesse, précédé d'une introduction par
J.-B. Estoup,... 3e édition. Paris, Institut sténographique1912. In-8 °, 142 p.
Call number at BNF : FRBNF32084574
--j
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