Re: OT: Icelandic help

In a message dated 5/5/2008 14:29:51 PM Central Daylight Time,
dedalvs@GMAIL.COM writes:


> Mark wrote:
> <<
> *Everyone* normally speaks very fast from the perspective of L2
> speakers (or non-speakers) of their L1.
> >>
>
> This is not generally true.  In fact, there have been studies on
> the speech rate of various languages, and some languages are
> spoken more quickly than others (Japanese is one of the quickest,
> and American English is pretty slow).  I remember I saw the
> movie Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) which was entirely in
> Inuktitut, and I was struck by just how slow everyone spoke.
> I couldn't understand it, of course, but I could make out every
> syllable.
>
> -David
>
David, I have to agree with Mark.  He was talking about the perceived speed
from the point of view of a non-speaker, thus a relative perception.  You're
speaking about the speed of a speaker in absolute terms.
Apples and oranges.

stevo   </HTML>

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