Cover not available

Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 40:3 (2013) ► pp.303–330

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Letter counting

A stem cell for cryptology, quantitative linguistics, and statistics

 | Université Grenoble Alpes
Published online: 3 September 2013
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.40.3.01yca
Summary
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.
Résumé
Compter les lettres d’un texte écrit est une pratique très ancienne. Elle a accompagné le développement de la cryptologie, de la linguistique quantitative et de la statistique. En cryptologie, compter les fréquences des lettres dans un message codé est la base de la méthode appelée analyse de fréquence. En linguistique quantitative, la proportion relative des voyelles et des consonnes dans les différentes langues a été étudiée bien avant les problèmes de paternité des écrits. En statistique, l’alternance des voyelles et des consonnes a été le seul exemple que Markov ait donné de sa théorie des événements en chaîne. Une brève histoire des décomptes de lettres est présentée. Les trois domaines, cryptologie, linguistique quantitative et statistique, sont examinés ensuite, l’accent étant mis sur les inte ractions avec les deux autres domaines au travers des décomptes de lettres. En conclusion, l’éclectisme des savants des siècles passés, leur formation classique et leur familiarité avec les cryptogrammes, sont identifiés comme facteurs ayant contribué au processus d’enrichissement mutuel qui est décrit ici.
Zusammenfassung
Seit langem schon hatte man die Buchstaben gezählt, aus die ein Text besteht. Das galt besonders für die Entwicklung der Kryptologie, für die quantitative Linguistik und für die Statistik. In der Kryptologie bildete die Frequenz der Buchstaben einer schriftlichen Botschaft die Basis jener Methode, die Frequenzanalyse genannt wird. In der quantitativen Linguistik spielten die Proportion der Zahl der Vokale und Konsonanten in den verschiedenen Sprachen schon lange eine Rolle, bevor es um die Zuweisung der Texte zu verschiedenen Autoren ging. In der Statistik war der Wechsel zwischen Vokalen und Konsonanten das einzige Beispiel, welches Markov für seine Ketten-Theorie angeführt hatte. In den Beitrag wird eine kurze Geschichte der Zählweisen für Buchstaben geboten. Anschließend werden die drei Bereiche Kryptologie, quantitative Linguistik und Statistik untersucht, in wieweit ihre jeweiligen Zählweisen mit einander in Beziehung stehen. Zusammenfassend werden der Eklektizismus der Gelehrten früherer Jahrhunderte, ihre klassische Bildung und ihre Vertrautheit mit Kryptogrammen identifiziert als Faktoren, welche zur wechselseitigen Bereicherung der hier untersuchten Bereiche beigetragen haben.
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Al-Kadi, Ibrahim A. 1992. “Origins of Cryptology: The Arab contributions”. Cryptologia 161.97–126. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andresen, Julie T[etel]. 1996. Linguistics in America, 1769–1924: A critical history. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1864. Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. London: Green.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Bauer, Friedrich L. 2007 [1 1997]. Decrypted Secrets: Methods and maxims of cryptology. 4th ed. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Breithaupt, Christian. 1737. Ars Decifratoria sive Sciencia occultas scripturas solvendi et legendi. Helmstedt: Weygand.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brillouin, Léon. 2004 [1 1956]. Science and Information Theory. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burke, Peter. 2012. A Social History of Knowledge. Volume II: From the Encyclopédie to Wikipedia. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Conradi, David Arnold. 1739. Cryptographia denudata, sive Ars decifrandi. Leiden: Philippus Bonk.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
[Conradi, David Arnold]. 1742. “The Art of Deciphering”. The Gentleman’s Magazine 121.133–135, 185–186, 241–242, 473–475.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cover, Thomas M. & Joy A. Thomas. 2006. Elements of Information Theory. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Davys, John. 1737. An Essay on the Art of Decyphering. London: Gilliver & Clarke.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Falconer, John. 1685. Cryptomenysis Patefacta or the Art of Secret Information Disclosed without a Key. London: Brown.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Friedman, William F. 1936. “Edgar Allan Poe, Cryptographer”. American Literature 81.266–280. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grafton, Anthony. 2000. Leon Battista Alberti, Master Builder of the Italian Renaissance. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Hacking, Ian. 1990. The Taming of Chance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Hitt, Parker. 1916. Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Press of the Army Service Schools.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hufbauer, Karl. 1982. The Formation of the German Chemical Community (1720–1795). Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kahn, David. 1996 [1 1967]. The Codebreakers: The story of secret writing. Rev. ed. New York: Scribner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelley, Page H., Daniel S. Mynatt & Timothy G. Crawford. 1998. The Masorah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klüber, Johannes Ludwig. 1809. Kryptographik: Lehrbuch der Geheimschreibekunst (Chiffrirund Dechiffrirkunst). Tübingen: J. G. Cotta.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kraus, Kari. 2009. “Conjectural Criticism: Computing past and future texts”. Digital Humanities Quarterly 3:4. No page given.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kullback, Solomon. 1976. Statistical Methods in Cryptanalysis. Laguna Hills, Calif.: Aegean Park Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Link, David. 2006a. “Traces of the Mouth: Andrei Adreyevich Markov’s mathematization of writing”. History of Science 441.321–348. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006b. “Chains to the West. Markov’s theory of connected events and its transmission to Western Europe”. Science in Context 191.561–589. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meister, Aloys. 1906. Die Geheimschrift im Dienste der Päpstlichen Kurie von ihren Anfängen bis zum Ende des XVI. Jahrhunderts. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mercanti, Fabio & Paola Landra. 2007. “I ‘Ludi Matematici’ di Leon Batista Alberti”. EIRIS 21.15–47.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meirion [i.e., William Owen Pughe]. 1799. “Proportion of Vowels and Consonants in Different Languages”. The Monthly Magazine 71.5–6.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mollin, Richard A. 2005. Codes: The guide to secrecy from ancient to modern times. Boca Raton, Fla.: Chapman & Hall. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morse, Edward L., ed. 1914. Samuel F. B. Morse: His letters and journals. Vol. II1. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003a. Ibn ‘Adlān’s Treatise al-mu’allaf lil-malik al-’Ašraf. (= Series on Arabic Origins of Cryptology, 2.) Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003b. Ibn ad-Durayhim’s Treatise on Cryptanalysis. (= Series on Arabic Origins of Cryptology, 3.) Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Mrayati, Mohammed, Yahia Meer Alam & Hassan at-Tayyan. 2007. Two Treatises on Cryptanalysis. (= Series on Arabic Origins of Cryptology, 6.) Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peng, Roger D. & Nicolas W. Hengartner. 2002. “Quantitative Analysis of Literary Styles”. The American Statistician 561.175–185. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perec, Georges. 1973. “Histoire du lipogramme”. Oulipo: La littérature potentielle, 73–89. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Pesic, Peter. 1997. “François Viète – father of Modern cryptanalysis”. Cryptologia 211.1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Petruszewycz, Micheline. 1979a. “A. A. Markov, ses probabilités en chaîne et les statistiques linguistiques”. Mathématiques et Sciences Humaines 661.5–42.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1983. “Chaînes de Markov et statistiques linguistiques”. Mots 71.85–95. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pierce, John R. 1973. “The Early Days of Information Theory”. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 191.3–8. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poe, Edgar Allan. 1986. The Annotated Tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. by Stephen Peithman. New York: Avenel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quetelet, Adolphe. 1828. Correspondance Mathématique et Physique. Tome IV1. Bruxelles: Hayez.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1829. Correspondance Mathématique et Physique. Tome V1. Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1832. Correspondance Mathématique et Physique. Tome VII1. Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1853. Compte rendu des travaux du Congrès général de statistique. Bruxelles: Hayez.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Reed, William J. 2001. “The Pareto, Zipf and Other Power Laws”. Economics Letters 741.15–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Richardson, Mary, John Grabosek, Diann Reischman & Phyllis Curtiss. 2004. “Morse Code, Scrabble, and the Alphabet”. Journal of Statistics Education 12:3. No page given. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacco, Luigi. 1951 [Original Italian ed., 1926]. Manuel de Cryptographie. Paris: Payot.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Selenus, Gustavus [i.e., August the Younger of Brunswick-Lüneburg]. 1624. Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiae Libri IX. Lüneburg: Johann & Heinrich Stern.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shannon, Claude E[lwood]. 1948. “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”. Bell System Technical Journal 271.379–423, 623–656. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shannon, Claude E. 1949. “Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems”. Bell System Technical Journal 281.656–715. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1951. “Prediction and Entropy of Printed English”. Ibid. 301.50–64.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stigler, Stephen M. 1999. Statistics on the Table: The history of statistical concepts and methods. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stopes, Charlotte C. 1888. The Bacon–Shakspere Question. London: Johnson.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Strasser, Gerhard F. 1983. “The Noblest Cryptologist: August the Younger of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Gustavus Selenus) and his cryptological activities”. Cryptologia 7:3.193–217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thicknesse, Philip. 1772. A Treatise on the Art of Decyphering, and of Writing in Cypher. London: Brown.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valerio, Paul-Louis Eugène. 1893. De la Cryptographie: Essai sur les méthodes de déchiffrement. Paris: Baudoin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vesin, Charles François. 1838. Traité d’obscurigraphie. Paris: Goullet.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vitevitch, Michael S. & Paul A. Luce. 1999. “Probabilistic Phonotactics and Neighborhood Activation in Spoken Word Recognition”. Journal of Memory and Language 401.374–408. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wepman, Dennis. “Butts, Alfred Mosher”. American National Biography Online. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wheatley, Henry Benjamin. 1862. Of Anagrams. Hertford: Austin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Yasuoka, Koichi & Motoko Yasuoka. 2011. “On the Prehistory of QWERTY”, Zimbun 421.161–174.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ycart, Bernard. 2013. “Alberti’s Letter Counts”. Literary and Linguistic Computing. (print version in press).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yule, George U[dny]. 1944. The Statistical Study of Literary Vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zipf, George K[ingsley]. 1949. Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort: An introduction to human ecology. New York: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 december 2025. 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.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue