Has anyone else ever noticed this?
You mean French, Spanish, etal?
Some languages flow faster…some people just know how to make the sounds flow faster.
For me, English speakers sometimes talk too fast…being accustomed to hearing the language also decreases its odds of being perceived a fast language.
I think it’s partly because you have to concentrate to understand. I found this particularly so when I first when to Germany - everyone seemed to speak so fast - but I later realised that actaully, I was translating everything they said back into English, and then when I spoke planning what to say in English and then translating to German. After a while I learned to think in German and no longer felt like they were talking a million miles a minute!
The other thing like KarlGrenze said, some languages are faster than others. This is even true of various versions of English, American English tends to be slightly slower (to my ear) than Australian English for example.
The sounds of english are “imprinted” on your mind so you
translate the words subconciously rather than actively. When
someone speaks spanish you just hear the words. When someone
speaks english you hear the meaning. Get what I’m saying?
If you consider that in other languages – take Spanish for example – you have to speak 50% more words to say the same English equivilent, it justifies that they’d speak 50% faster!
…and I’m only half kidding. For example, “my aunt’s husband’s best friend.” “El mejor amigo del esposo de mi tia.” That’s 8 words instead of 5!
Or German: “spaghetti” versus “longenstuffen machtet von flouren von fieldenpflanzen mit fleishundtomotosaucen.” (okay, that’s a joke).
(really, now that I understand most of what my wife or Spanish TV says as opposed to mentally translating it, Spanish doesn’t seem as fast any more)
If you consider that in other languages – take Spanish for example – you have to speak 50% more words to say the same English equivilent, it justifies that they’d speak 50% faster!
…and I’m only half kidding. For example, “my aunt’s husband’s best friend.” “El mejor amigo del esposo de mi tia.” That’s 8 words instead of 5!
Or German: “spaghetti” versus “longenstuffen machtet von flouren von fieldenpflanzen mit fleishundtomotosaucen.” (okay, that’s a joke).
(really, now that I understand most of what my wife or Spanish TV says as opposed to mentally translating it, Spanish doesn’t seem as fast any more)
Agree with much of what’s been said, thus far. I’d add these two minor things:
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Some cultures seem to relish those who know how to deliver a high number of words per minute. Italian comes to mind. It’s a mark of status, maybe I’m wrong, to be able to deliver Italian at tongue-numbing (ear-numbing?) speed.
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Non-speakers can understand phonemes, even if they can’t get whole words, so “anitidisestablishmentarianism” sounds amazing to non-native English speakers who didn’t hear it 3 million times in grammar school.
When we hear our native language were conscious of the gaps between the words that were listening to, even though in the stream of sound there may be no actual gaps. On listening to a language that we dont understand we hear a continuous babble which gives the impression of greater speed of speech. Having said that, Id still swear that Italians talk faster!