Language Speeds
UltimaGecko
hates endnotes Join Date: 2003-05-14 Member: 16320Members
hates endnotes Join Date: 2003-05-14 Member: 16320Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">whoooooooosh...and stuff.</div> Yea, see, I was watching some Neon Genesis Evangelion and was listening to the people speak in Japanese, then it came to me, "Damn! They're talking fast." The only time its decently slow is the singing at the beginning. I've come to the conclusion that Japan is so productive because they can fit in 5 sentances for 2 in english. So here's how I got my speed chart thing going, from fastest to slowest, of languages I've heard spoken:
Japanese (probably other asian languages too, heck, the words are just connected to form one long word)
Spanish (holy crap man!)
Russian (fast, but at least you can understand it, Romanian and other Eastern European languages too)
French (I know like nothing, but it's not incredibly fast, to me at least)
German (Can be spoken fast, but I've never really heard many people talk fast in it. Try to say some of it fast...heh, "Wir brauchen etwas zu machen...you can't even read it fast <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->)
English (This has to be the slowest language, No one talks fast, it's just messed up. How can people say it's the hardest language to learn if it's so sloooow)
The hardest to learn would probably be one of those Amazonian clicking languages...how would you write that.
You people can numerically order them how you want. I'm just refering to casual speech, since English can be spoke really fast. Russian would probably be the fastest if you were going for speed. I knew a girl from Moldova, she spoke a whole tongue twister that was like 20 words in about 4 seconds.
Listening to: Ordinary Day, by Vanessa Carlton
...I'll change it in a second...hold on.
Japanese (probably other asian languages too, heck, the words are just connected to form one long word)
Spanish (holy crap man!)
Russian (fast, but at least you can understand it, Romanian and other Eastern European languages too)
French (I know like nothing, but it's not incredibly fast, to me at least)
German (Can be spoken fast, but I've never really heard many people talk fast in it. Try to say some of it fast...heh, "Wir brauchen etwas zu machen...you can't even read it fast <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->)
English (This has to be the slowest language, No one talks fast, it's just messed up. How can people say it's the hardest language to learn if it's so sloooow)
The hardest to learn would probably be one of those Amazonian clicking languages...how would you write that.
You people can numerically order them how you want. I'm just refering to casual speech, since English can be spoke really fast. Russian would probably be the fastest if you were going for speed. I knew a girl from Moldova, she spoke a whole tongue twister that was like 20 words in about 4 seconds.
Listening to: Ordinary Day, by Vanessa Carlton
...I'll change it in a second...hold on.
Comments
irish people talk prety damn fast i think...
Oh, and msot spanish isn't bad, expect in, like, parts of Venezuela where they just drop the ends of words and don't conjugate thier verbs...
irish people talk prety damn fast i think... <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
In English, or Galick (Spelling?)?
irish people talk prety damn fast i think... <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
In English, or Galick (Spelling?)? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well depends Gailich i thinks the correct spelling.
Still people in Glasgow and most of the rest of Scotland talk fast. Even other english speakers strugle.
i can say wir brauchen etwas zu machen plenty darn fast, and well articulated as well, and ive had a measy five years of highschool german class.
japanese may sound fast because they accentuate every consonant, where we blur them together. a word like interesting is pronounced in-jres-ding and said instantly, but a foreigner would hear so many funny sounds lined up right next to each other, and its just overwhelming.
try to see the world from someone elses point of view!
Yep. I have to talk dead slow on voicecomm in a game of NS because I talk fast usually. I sound like a retard <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
Aww, that's what I was going to say. <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
I know a little bit of Japanese, and when those who know the language hear me speak it, they comment on how slowly I'm talking, and on how 'properly' I pronounce the words. When <i>they</i> speak it, it seems like it's mostly gibberish except for a few familiar words.
Similarly, many who are just learning english tend to speak it slowly and are very articulate in their pronunciation. When <i>we</i> speak it, it's most likely the same thing as above to someone who is unfamiliar with the language.
Also, slang words often make a language very difficult to understand to those who only partially know that language. They usually make it even harder to learn the language from a native speaker as well.
I'd site those I know a bit from:
French: this is a slow language. Whatever it seems, it's quite slow. The absence of contractions, the need of double negation (ne...pas instead of not) and overall pronunciaton makes it that way.
English: I'd say it's moderate. It mostly depends on the speaker, but it's more or less moderate.
Chinese: Quite fast. The absence of past, present future and plural tense makes it quite easy to flow words. Rough sounds such as the rolling R don't exist, and stress is less ... stressy, making less stops.
Russian: Yes it's fast, let's say they barely pronounce what's after the accent of a word (though I barely can speak it lol) . Though stresses are quite stressed. Though there are declensions similar to German, even more.
for:
Wir brauchen etwas zu machen. or
We need something to do.
The german goes much faster to me, unless you're that micromachines commercial guy. Maybe I'm just messed up <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->. Also with NGE, I noticed Japanese uses a lot of english words. Adjusted slightly. I caught a "Second Impacto" and some others I can't remember right now.
Completely Unrelated stuff:
I don't see why people think english is one of the hardest languages to learn either (I'm gonna throw this in here because I don't think it warrants another thread).
I'm going to compare english and german....since they're what I know, in a few aspects:
Plurals-
English adds an s except some words (generally ending in an x that add es) or are the same as singular. Just going to throw the fact english always uses the here.
German adds a variety of letters, depending on number of syllables, language origin, gender and than there's the just special ones. Plurals can end in: n, e, en, s, er or nothing. Lets not forget about the words that require the umlauts (two dots above a letter) either...
Note that a u with umlauts (?) can also be ue. ueber = ?ber
No es-tset key, so that'll be ss instead.
Let's have fun comparing!
The table - The tables
Die Tisch - Die Tische
The edge - The edges
Der Rand - Die R?nder (note the der to die change (and its dee not DIE)
The computer - The computers
Der Computer - Die Computer
(nouns are always capitalized in german)
How about commands? Well, that depends.
In english? Go Home.
In german? Who are you talking to? One person? a group of people or a formal figure?
ex, a friend: Geh nach Hause
ex, a group of friends: Geht nach Hause
ex, formal: Gehen Sie nach Hause.
Don't forget the different words for 'the' in german! Der, Die, Das, Den, Dem, Des. (covering all 4 cases, of course)
There's more stuff, but I don't feel like being a book. So, besides slang, why is english hard now?
Hooray for german, eh?
Listening to: Another Lonely Day, by Ben Harper
...Not to lonely though...
irish people talk prety damn fast i think... <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
In English, or Galick (Spelling?)? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well depends Gailich i thinks the correct spelling.
Still people in Glasgow and most of the rest of Scotland talk fast. Even other english speakers strugle. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
That would be Gaelic in case anyone still cared.
I believe the pronunciation speed is about the same for all languages, if you're an experienced speaker. A syllable is a syllable.
The "wordiness" however varies greatly. If you translate an English novel into German, you'll need about 1.5x - 2x as many words. Japanese is full of phrases added for politeness which don't even have a direct translation in most languages.
Schiessen ....okay, to shoot.
Scheissen ....bad....thats a swear...heh
Lied ....okay...a song
Leid ....suffering or harm....heh
Leib ...a body
Lieb ...love
granted those aren't to bad, but they can mess up your topic.
Like if you say " Mein lieblingsleid ist...." That'd be kinda weird (my favorite harm is ...yea.)
I believe a form of the russian word to urinate is also a form of to write ...or something like that. Read that somewhere.
Listening to:nothing
...meh
Also, check out the Japanese band Hoover Ooover, very fast female vocals, good music too. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Spanish for: My name is ben, and yours is?
Vivo en una casa
Spanish for: I live in a house
VERY shoddy German, means something like "Last weekend i burned down my house". I learnt it about 4 years ago specifically for my German oral exam.
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Letztes Wochenende ich habe mein haus gebrennen. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's what I get from it. But in an effort to keep my german skills sharp for the impending college, I'm going to try to grammarically correct some stuff...
Letztes Wochenende habe ich mein Haus Niedergebrennen.
Heck, it's probably still grammarically wrong...no body listen to my german.
Niemand hoeren mir zu....or something.
I need a german forum just so I can get kicked out for not speaking right..Might actually learn something to. Gonna throw in one more german sentance: Ich habe eine Russin geliebt, aber jetzt ist sie gegangen. Feel free to correct any grammar mistakes.
Listening to: Torn, by Natalie Imbruglia
...nobody reads my signature (that I write personally everytime) so whats the point?