most people speak about 150 words per minute, and read 200 wpm. most type about 50 wpm and listen around 150 wpm. speech-to-text is the optimal interface that gets us closest to thinking velocity. yet our thinking is mostly limited and constrained by our language.
947
910
296
10,405
Replying to @jack
And I've seen English has pretty good bit rate when spoken, but has anyone done tests on which language has the highest data rate when read? Robert Heinlein's fictional language Speedtalk idealized having words that compose a sentence by themselves. I've noted too how much shorter Latin is to English translation.

Feb 7, 2025 · 5:04 PM UTC

4
3
2
29
Replying to @StevePender @jack
I'd imagine the winner would be the language composed of the most descriptive words. If one language requires more words to say the same thing as another language, then that language will take longer to speak.
Replying to @StevePender @jack
Speech speed is limited by thought, not mouth. So, they’re all about the same I’d guess. I saw an analysis of the information density of Spanish vs English. Information density per unit time is the same. Spanish is spoken faster because of less density per syllable.