  Cross-linguistic similarities are reflected by the speech sound systems of
languages all over the world. In this work we try to model such similarities
observed in the consonant inventories, through a complex bipartite network. We
present a systematic study of some of the appealing features of these
inventories with the help of the bipartite network. An important observation is
that the occurrence of consonants follows a two regime power law distribution.
We find that the consonant inventory size distribution together with the
principle of preferential attachment are the main reasons behind the emergence
of such a two regime behavior. In order to further support our explanation we
present a synthesis model for this network based on the general theory of
preferential attachment.
