It's a deeper reason than that. Humans are hardwired to start with short symbols. Picture a group of humans who evolve a new language. That language will likel

It's a deeper reason than that. Humans are hardwired to start with short symbols. Picture a group of humans who evolve a new language. That language will likely start with short sounds, and then progressively build up to longer sounds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCn8zs912OE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCn8zs912OE Anyone who hasn't read A Mathematical Theory of Communication, you're missing out. It's quite readable and quite cool: http://math.harvard.edu/~ctm/home/text/others/shannon/entropy/entropy.pdf http://math.harvard.edu/~ctm/home/text/others/shannon/entrop...