Common Syllables in English. Refer to the table shown here of some common syllables in English for Exercises 18–21.

Syllable Frequency
an 462
bi 621
sit 104
ed 907
its 293
est 186
wil 470
tiv 136
en 675
biz 114

Question 3.459

syllables

21. Find the sample variance and the sample standard deviation of syllable frequencies.

  1. How far is each from your estimate of the typical deviation earlier?
  2. Interpret the meaning of this value for the standard deviation so that someone who has never studied statistics would understand it.

3.99.21

Standard deviation = 276.2. (a) 24 (b) The frequency counts for the syllables typically differ from the mean of 396.8 by only 276.2.