Letter counting
A stem cell for cryptology, quantitative linguistics, and statistics
Counting letters in written texts is a very ancient practice. It has accompanied the development of cryptology, quantitative linguistics, and statistics. In cryptology, counting frequencies of the different characters in an encrypted message is the basis of the so called frequency analysis method. In quantitative linguistics, the proportion of vowels to consonants in different languages was studied long before authorship attribution. In statistics, the alternation vowel-consonants was the only example that Markov ever gave of his theory of chained events. A short history of letter counting is presented. The three domains, cryptology, quantitative linguistics, and statistics, are then examined, focusing on the interactions with the other two fields through letter counting. As a conclusion, the eclecticism of the scholars of past centuries, their background in humanities, and their familiarity with cryptograms, are identified as contributing factors to the mutual enrichment process which is described here.
References (81)
References
Alberti, Leon Battista. 2010 [1467]. “De Componendis Cifris”. Translated by Kim Williams. The Mathematical Work of Leon Battista Alberti ed. by Kim Williams, Lionel March & Stephen R. Wassel, 171–200. Basel: Birkäuser-Springer.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Al-Kadi, Ibrahim A. 1992. “Origins of Cryptology: The Arab contributions”. Cryptologia 161.97–126. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Andresen, Julie T[etel]. 1996. Linguistics in America, 1769–1924: A critical history. London: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Babbage, Charles. 1832. “On the Advantage of a Collection of Numbers, to be Entitled the Constants of Nature and Art”. Edinburgh Journal of Science, New Series 61.334–340.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Babbage, Charles. 1864. Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. London: Green.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bailey, Richard W[eld]. 1969. “Statistics and Style: A historical survey”. Statistics and Style ed. by Lubomir Doložel & Richard W. Bailey, 217–236. New York: American Elsevier.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bauer, Friedrich L. 2007 [1
1997]. Decrypted Secrets: Methods and maxims of cryptology. 4th ed. Berlin: Springer.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Birgegård, Ulla. 1985. Johan Gabriel Sparwenfeld and the Lexicon Slavonicum: His contribution to 17th century Slavonic lexicography. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell for the Bibliotheca R[egalis] Universitatis Upsaliensis.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Breithaupt, Christian. 1737. Ars Decifratoria sive Sciencia occultas scripturas solvendi et legendi. Helmstedt: Weygand.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brillouin, Léon. 2004 [1
1956]. Science and Information Theory. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Burke, Peter. 2012. A Social History of Knowledge. Volume II: From the Encyclopédie to Wikipedia. Cambridge: Polity Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Carnicer García, Carlos J. & Javier Marcos Rivas. 2005. Espías de Felipe II: Los servicios secretos del imperio español. Madrid: la Esfera de los Libros.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Conradi, David Arnold. 1739. Cryptographia denudata, sive Ars decifrandi. Leiden: Philippus Bonk.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
[Conradi, David Arnold]. 1742. “The Art of Deciphering”. The Gentleman’s Magazine 121.133–135, 185–186, 241–242, 473–475.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cover, Thomas M. & Joy A. Thomas. 2006. Elements of Information Theory. New York: Wiley.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Davies, Damian W. 2002. Presences that Disturb: Models of Romantic Influence in the Literature and Culture of the 1790s. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Davys, John. 1737. An Essay on the Art of Decyphering. London: Gilliver & Clarke.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
De Morgan, Augustus. 1882 [1851]. “Letter to Rev. W. Heald Aug. 18, 1851”. Memoir of Augustus De Morgan ed. by Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan, 214–216. London: Green.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Falconer, John. 1685. Cryptomenysis Patefacta or the Art of Secret Information Disclosed without a Key. London: Brown.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Friedman, William F. 1936. “Edgar Allan Poe, Cryptographer”. American Literature 81.266–280. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Good, Irving J. 1979. “Studies in the History of Probability and Statistics. XXXVII: A. M. Turing’s statistical work in World War II”. Biometrika 661.393–396. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Grafton, Anthony. 2000. Leon Battista Alberti, Master Builder of the Italian Renaissance. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Grieve, Jack W. 2005. Quantitative Authorship Attribution: A history and an evaluation of techniques. M.A. thesis, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hacking, Ian. 1990. The Taming of Chance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hastings, James. 1902. Dictionary of the Bible Dealing with its Language, Literature, and Contents. Vol. IV (pleroma – zuzim). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hitt, Parker. 1916. Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Press of the Army Service Schools.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hufbauer, Karl. 1982. The Formation of the German Chemical Community (1720–1795). Berkeley: University of California Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kahn, David. 1996 [1
1967]. The Codebreakers: The story of secret writing. Rev. ed. New York: Scribner.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kelley, Page H., Daniel S. Mynatt & Timothy G. Crawford. 1998. The Masorah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Klüber, Johannes Ludwig. 1809. Kryptographik: Lehrbuch der Geheimschreibekunst (Chiffrirund Dechiffrirkunst). Tübingen: J. G. Cotta.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kraus, Kari. 2009. “Conjectural Criticism: Computing past and future texts”. Digital Humanities Quarterly 3:4. No page given.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kullback, Solomon. 1976. Statistical Methods in Cryptanalysis. Laguna Hills, Calif.: Aegean Park Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lieber, Francis. 1835. “Consonants”. Encyclopedia Americana ed. by Francis Lieber, Edward Wigglesworth, Thomas G. Bradford & Henry Vethake, vol. III1, 449–453 Philadelphia: Desilvern.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Link, David. 2006a. “Traces of the Mouth: Andrei Adreyevich Markov’s mathematization of writing”. History of Science 441.321–348. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Link, David. 2006b. “Chains to the West. Markov’s theory of connected events and its transmission to Western Europe”. Science in Context 191.561–589. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Markov, Andrey A. 2006 [1913]. “An Example of Statistical Investigation of the Text Eugene Onegin Concerning the Connection of Samples in Chains”. Translated by Gloria Custance and David Link. Science in Context 191.591–600. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Meister, Aloys. 1906. Die Geheimschrift im Dienste der Päpstlichen Kurie von ihren Anfängen bis zum Ende des XVI. Jahrhunderts. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mercanti, Fabio & Paola Landra. 2007. “I ‘Ludi Matematici’ di Leon Batista Alberti”. EIRIS 21.15–47.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Meirion [i.e., William Owen Pughe]. 1799. “Proportion of Vowels and Consonants in Different Languages”. The Monthly Magazine 71.5–6.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mollin, Richard A. 2005. Codes: The guide to secrecy from ancient to modern times. Boca Raton, Fla.: Chapman & Hall. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Morse, Edward L., ed. 1914. Samuel F. B. Morse: His letters and journals. Vol. II1. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mrayati, Mohammed, Yahia Meer Alam & Hassan at-Tayyan. 2002. Al Kindī’s Treatise on Cryptanalysis. (=
Series on Arabic Origins of Cryptology, 1.) Damascus: KFCRIS & KACST.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mrayati, Mohammed, Yahia Meer Alam & Hassan at-Tayyan. 2003a. Ibn ‘Adlān’s Treatise al-mu’allaf lil-malik al-’Ašraf. (=
Series on Arabic Origins of Cryptology, 2.) Ibid.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mrayati, Mohammed, Yahia Meer Alam & Hassan at-Tayyan. 2003b. Ibn ad-Durayhim’s Treatise on Cryptanalysis. (=
Series on Arabic Origins of Cryptology, 3.) Ibid.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mrayati, Mohammed, Yahia Meer Alam, & Hassan at-Tayyan. 2005. Ibn Dunaynīr’s book: Expositive Chapters on Cryptanalysis. (=
Series on Arabic Origins of Cryptology, 4.) Ibid.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mrayati, Mohammed, Yahia Meer Alam & Hassan at-Tayyan. 2007. Two Treatises on Cryptanalysis. (=
Series on Arabic Origins of Cryptology, 6.) Ibid.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Peng, Roger D. & Nicolas W. Hengartner. 2002. “Quantitative Analysis of Literary Styles”. The American Statistician 561.175–185. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Perec, Georges. 1973. “Histoire du lipogramme”. Oulipo: La littérature potentielle, 73–89. Paris: Gallimard.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Perret, Paul-Michel. 1890. “Les règles de Cicco Simonetta pour le déchiffrement des écritures secretes (4 juillet 1474)”. Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes 511.516–525. Paris.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pesic, Peter. 1997. “François Viète – father of Modern cryptanalysis”. Cryptologia 211.1–29. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Petruszewycz, Micheline. 1979a. “A. A. Markov, ses probabilités en chaîne et les statistiques linguistiques”. Mathématiques et Sciences Humaines 661.5–42.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Petruszewycz, Micheline. 1979b. “Contribution pour servir à l’étude du choix que fit A. A. Markov d’un domaine d’application de sa théorie des chaînes”. Mathématiques et Sciences Humaines 661.43–49.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Petruszewycz, Micheline. 1983. “Chaînes de Markov et statistiques linguistiques”. Mots 71.85–95. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pierce, John R. 1973. “The Early Days of Information Theory”. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 191.3–8. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Poe, Edgar Allan. 1986. The Annotated Tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. by Stephen Peithman. New York: Avenel.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Quetelet, Adolphe. 1828. Correspondance Mathématique et Physique. Tome IV1. Bruxelles: Hayez.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Quetelet, Adolphe. 1829. Correspondance Mathématique et Physique. Tome V1. Ibid.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Quetelet, Adolphe. 1832. Correspondance Mathématique et Physique. Tome VII1. Ibid.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Quetelet, Adolphe. 1853. Compte rendu des travaux du Congrès général de statistique. Bruxelles: Hayez.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Quetelet, Adolphe. 1873. “Notice sur Charles Babbage”. Annuaire de l’Académie Royale des sciences des lettres et des Beaux-arts de Belgique 391.149–165.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Reed, William J. 2001. “The Pareto, Zipf and Other Power Laws”. Economics Letters 741.15–19. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Richardson, Mary, John Grabosek, Diann Reischman & Phyllis Curtiss. 2004. “Morse Code, Scrabble, and the Alphabet”. Journal of Statistics Education 12:3. No page given. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacco, Luigi. 1951 [Original Italian ed., 1926]. Manuel de Cryptographie. Paris: Payot.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Selenus, Gustavus [i.e., August the Younger of Brunswick-Lüneburg]. 1624. Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiae Libri IX. Lüneburg: Johann & Heinrich Stern.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Shannon, Claude E[lwood]. 1948. “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”. Bell System Technical Journal 271.379–423, 623–656. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Shannon, Claude E. 1949. “Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems”. Bell System Technical Journal 281.656–715. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Shannon, Claude E. 1951. “Prediction and Entropy of Printed English”. Ibid. 301.50–64.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stigler, Stephen M. 1999. Statistics on the Table: The history of statistical concepts and methods. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stopes, Charlotte C. 1888. The Bacon–Shakspere Question. London: Johnson.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Strasser, Gerhard F. 1983. “The Noblest Cryptologist: August the Younger of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Gustavus Selenus) and his cryptological activities”. Cryptologia 7:3.193–217. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thicknesse, Philip. 1772. A Treatise on the Art of Decyphering, and of Writing in Cypher. London: Brown.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Valerio, Paul-Louis Eugène. 1893. De la Cryptographie: Essai sur les méthodes de déchiffrement. Paris: Baudoin.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vesin, Charles François. 1838. Traité d’obscurigraphie. Paris: Goullet.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vitevitch, Michael S. & Paul A. Luce. 1999. “Probabilistic Phonotactics and Neighborhood Activation in Spoken Word Recognition”. Journal of Memory and Language 401.374–408. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wepman, Dennis. “Butts, Alfred Mosher”. American National Biography Online. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wheatley, Henry Benjamin. 1862. Of Anagrams. Hertford: Austin.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Williams, Charles B. 1956. “Studies in the History of Probability and Statistics IV: A note on early statistical study of literary style”. Biometrika 431.248–256.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Yasuoka, Koichi & Motoko Yasuoka. 2011. “On the Prehistory of QWERTY”, Zimbun 421.161–174.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ycart, Bernard. 2013. “Alberti’s Letter Counts”. Literary and Linguistic Computing.
(print version in press).![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Yule, George U[dny]. 1944. The Statistical Study of Literary Vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zipf, George K[ingsley]. 1949. Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort: An introduction to human ecology. New York: Addison-Wesley.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
[no author supplied]
2017.
Current Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences, 2017.
Isis 108:S1
► pp. i ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.