Ever listen to speakers of an unfamiliar language and it sounds as if the conversation is moving at light speed? The answer may have been discovered! Researchers at Université de Lyon in France wanted to see if they could pinpoint why some languages seem to be spoken faster and why. The study found that languages contain different information densities per syllable and the average number of syllables spoken in some languages is faster, but all the languages convey the same information within the same time span. Thus, each syllable in English and Mandarin conveys a high amount of information which allows speakers to move more slowly, while Spanish and Japanese are less dense and can be spoken faster. You can read the full article here:
Why Some Languages Sound Fast
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