[ExI] What's the fastest language to speak?

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Eugen Leitl
>Subject: Re: [ExI] What's the fastest language to speak?

>> 60 seconds probably rules out German.  The verb won't have arrived yet.    ;)

>...German wouldn't be even on the map. I was thinking of Italian or (Cuban) Spanish, but apparently, Japanese (counterintuitively) is pretty good.

>...http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2091477,00.html...


Read this comment aloud, knowing that Spanish is phonetically spelled, and say it with feeling: 

Usted es la mujer más hermosa del mundo, y te amo con mi entero corazón!

In high school we had a Spanish-speaking exchange student.  We wanted to learn some Spanish, so she gathered several of us lads and taught us several of these gooey sweet Spanish phrases that she loved to hear, and had us recite them individually, repeatedly, and in unison, making sure we had all the accents and emphasis just right.  This is the comment which stuck in my mind all these years.  Even non-Spanish speakers get the drift, ja?  I have been using it on my own sweetheart for thirty years now, and it still works.  {8-]

I ranted last week about bullfighting, so I must make it clear that I am a big admirer of the Spanish people, with the sound and cadence of the language and the colorful aspects of their culture, the music, the style.  I suspect most of them find bullfighting offensive too.  To be fair, in the states we have our own version of recreational danger using farm animals as toys: rodeo.  In our case the beast has about an even chance of winning and doesn't actually perish, but I can imagine the bucking bronco is not having as much fun as the buckaroos in the audience.

Many of us know people who go on and on, with little if any memetic content to their speech.  They speak much and say little.  We know others whose spoken word is memetically very rich, with their every comment filled with interesting ideas.  Robert Bradbury was a fine example of the latter case, and there are others one meets at transhumanist and singularity gatherings.

spike