I figured out why spanish announcers talk so fast

[bandXtrb]

In Spanish, It takes so many more syllables to say the same thing then in English. For example, if I were to talk about "Independence day" (5 syllables), I would have to say "La dia de la Independencia" (11 syllables) in Spanish. As a result, they folks need to talk faster to keep up.

That's what I came up with, at least.

 

[Robert01]

Spanish people usually talk fast, anyway. Sports announcers in America usually speak at a slightly faster rate than you and I would.

 

[Sophia]

Spanish speakers do not really talk faster than English speakers. It just sounds faster. I mentioned to a Mexican friend of mine learning English that Spanish speakers sound fast to English speakers, and she replied that English speakers sound fast to Spanish speakers!

If I recall correctly, here are a couple of reasons why.

First, Spanish syllabicates differently than English. When possible, Spanish syllables like to start with consonents and end with vowels.

Read this sentence aloud normally in English.
Sports announcers in America usually speak at a slightly faster rate than you and I would.

Now read it with syllables like these, which is roughly how it would divide in Spanish.
Sport sa nnoun cer si na me ri ca u sua llys pea ka ta slight ly fas te rrate tha nyou an di would.

Second, Spanish accents only by stress. English speakers sometimes "elongate" accented syllables or drop unaccented syllables. (I forget what this is called). Consider "independent" as an exaggerated example: in-de-peeeeen-dent. Or "chocolate" which almost becomes choc-let.

So for Spanish speakers to say "independiente" as in-de-pen-dien-te or "chocolate" cho-co-la-te which each syllable being the same "length" AND to divide phrases into syllables in ways that sometimes sound unnatural to us English speakers makes Spanish seem a little like a linguistic machine gun.

Just the musings of a rusty, amateur linguist. (Someone correct me if I've erred. )

 

[johnjohn320]

Spanish sounds faster because they pronounce every single letter...silent letters do not exist in Spanish, so it's much more rapid off the tongue.

 

[Sophia]

<< Spanish sounds faster because they pronounce every single letter...silent letters do not exist in Spanish, so it's much more rapid off the tongue. >>



True, there are no silent letters in Spanish (except H), but how would silent letters in written language make any difference in how people perceive spoken language? There are no silent sounds (phonemes) in speech. Bow (as in bow your head) and bough (of a tree) have the same pronunciation even though bough has silent letters.