The network of syllables in Portuguese

We develop a network using the syllables of the Portuguese language. In this language the syllables are close to the basic phonetic unities. The nodes of the network are the syllables. The links are established each time two syllables form part of the same word. We use two different data sets to perform the numerics: a Portuguese dictionary and the complete work of the most important Brazilian writer—Machado de Assis. The syllabic network shows a low distance and a high clustering coefficient when compared with an associated Erdos–Renyi graph and with an associated random network with the same distribution of connectivity. The distribution of connectivity of the syllabic network follows a power law with exponent γ 1.4 indicating complex behavior.