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Why do some languages sound so much faster than others? Spanish and Japanese can reach up to 8 syllables per second, while languages like English and Mandarin are noticeably slower. But speed alone doesn’t tell the full story — because languages balance speed against something much deeper: information density.
[Timeline]
[00:36] Why some languages johnny gaudreau are faster
[03:43] Do faster languages have a trade-off?
[04:57] 2019 Study on speech rate vs info density
[07:46] 39 bits/second
[References]
Coupé, C., Oh, Y. M., Dediu, D., & Pellegrino, F. (2019). Different languages, similar encoding efficiency: phil foden Comparable information rates across the human communicative niche. circle k gas station 40 cents off Science Advances, 5(9).
Delattre, P., & Olsen, C. L. (1969). Syllabic features and phonic impression in English, German, French and Spanish. Lingua, 22, 160–175.
Pellegrino, François & Coupé, Christophe & Marsico, Egidio. (2011). A cross-Language Perspective on Speech Information Rate. Language. 87. 539-558. 10.2307/23011654.
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