What language is spoken most rapidly, the english, the spanish, the german or the french?

Answer 1

Depends who's speaking and what region they're from. I speak all four languages. I speak English (native lang.) very quickly, because it's how we speak where I come from. I speak French quickly, quicker than they do in the south but a little slower than in Paris. I speak German at a normal speed, slower than Berlin but quicker than Oberbayern. I speak Spanish very slowly, but that's because I can't get the accent right and I can't pronounce some of the sounds. In my experience every country has areas which speak faster or slower than average, and whether you think it's slow or fast depends on what your native language is and where you come from.

Answer 2

I can't understand why someone gave Dutchday a thumbs down - he's the only right one. English and german tonic accent is more vowel length related than intensity related, requiring a slow-down on stressed syllables. French has fairly equal stress on all syllables, with a bit extra at the end of a breath group, while Spanish has true tonic accent. Spanish SOUNDS faster than the others because each syllable is given (more or less) equal length, with some stressed in intensity more than others - at the other end of the scale, English SOUNDS slower because you perceive the long syllables and the unstressed ones fall into the background (I'm talking of British RP here.)

So, Spanish sounds like a machine gun whereas English sounds like mortar fire, but the number of syllables per second is not that different in truth.

Obviously there are regional and educational variations within a particular language, but I'm referring to educated speach in the various languages.

Answer 3

Not considering local variations it's easy really.

German and English are both stress timed languages, (meaning the stress will pretty much alternate in a sentence, so you hear a constant pattern.)

French and Spanish are not, so to most people it sounds like a constant ''word flow'' and it's hard to make out specific syllables.

Perceptively, French and Spanish sound really fast while objectively, this is debatable. It can be argued French and Spanish are indeed a bit faster than stress timed languages but the difference is really not that big as it appears, then.

Answer 4

French

Answer 5

I speak German and English and it is definately not these too languages. I was in France and it's not French. Most Spanish people I hear speaking speak really quickly.

Answer 6

I hear all three spoken on an a daily basis. From my experience, Spanish wins hands down. It seems to me that Spanish requires more words to express a single idea than any of the other languages, and native speakers go a hundred miles an hour to get it all out. I get tired just listening.

Answer 7

In my opinion it would be spanish. German is said slow and for french to say it right you got to say it slow. For english it depends on whos speaking every one has there own speed.

Answer 8

Haha, German for sure. I love how they speak it!
Second fastest is French but it's kinda tied with Spanish... and the slowest is the language you gotta love, English!

Answer 9

i would choose italian if i could..but picking out of these 4..mmm..probably spanish. i dont hear a lot of people speak french so i dont know. and to the guy above, german is spoken slow???!!!! u must never heard a german speak my friend! i heard so many foreigns say that they dont understand but one word if two germans have a conversation...

Answer 10

I would say German, but that's only because I've taken classes to learn to speak it, then actually hearing Germans speak, I couldn't keep up after a year of the classes. But that's just my opinion. They talk really, really fast.