Fact · Languages and accents
The study's authors quote Roach (1999) that a language with simple syllables such as Japanese can fit more syllables into a second than English or Polish, so it will probably sound faster.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“So if a language with a relatively simple syllable structure like Japanese is able to fit more syllables into a second than a language with a complex syllable structure such as English or Polish, it will probably sound faster as a result”
A cross-language perspective on speech information rate, François Pellegrino et al., Language (Linguistic Society of America), vol. 87, no. 3, 2011, Section 3.3, Variation in speech rate.
Open the original- What it measures
- The passage is Roach's 1999 argument, quoted in the 2011 paper, that syllable rate depends on syllable structure and so varies from one language to another. The 2011 paper uses syllables per second as its speech rate measure for that reason.
- What it does not show
- This is a claim about perception and a quoted argument, not a measurement. The same paper notes that a syllable is a more robust unit than a sound when speakers speed up.