English: Zipf law plot (frequency as function of frequency rank) for three English language texts. All texts were mapped to lowercase, with numerals, verses, marginal notes, and foreign language material removed.

The texts and the word frequency files are:

• Text of the Wakefield Mystery Plays aka Towneley Mystery Plays, popular plays on religious themes (1460). From the 1897 edition by George England, in the original spelling. The language is Middle English; archaic characters were replaced by modern digraphs. Sample: i am the first the last also oone god in mageste meruelus of myght most [...] and with in this chyld may. File engl/twp/tot.1/gud.wfr (original 81498 words, truncated/filtered to 35027 words, N = 4202 distinct).

• Nicholas Culpeper's herbal medicine handbook The English Physitian (1652), from Richard Siderits's transcription, in the original spelling. Sample: courteous reader aristotle in his metaphysicks writing of the nature of [...] so will a paper also if it do but touch the water your best way then. File engl/cul/tot.1/gud.wfr (original 122229 words, truncated/filtered to 35027 words, N = 3544 distinct).

• H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds (1898), from Project Gutenberg. Sample: no one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century [...] there were already a couple of score of passengers aboard some of. File engl/wow/tot.1/gud.wfr (original 60293 words, truncated/filtered to 35027 words, N = 4869 distinct).

The word frequency files '*/*/*/gud.wfr' are available at the UNICAMP website. The original annotated full texts, before truncation/filtering, are in the companion files */*/org/main.src. The truncated/filtered texts -- one word per line, without punctuation -- are in */*/*/gud.tlw.