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1. Japanese:
Japanese is the fastest recorded language. It has a rate of 7.84 syllables per second.
2. Spanish:
Spanish is right behind Japanese and is nearly as fast with a rate of 7.82 syllables per second.
3. French
French lags just a little far behind with a rate of 7.18 syllables per second.
4. Italian
Italian is relatively slower than Spanish and French with a rate of 6.99 syllables per second.
5. English
English is among the slower languages with a rate of 6.19 syllables per second.
6. German
Before last is German with a speed of 5.97 syllables per second.
7. Mandarin
Mandarin is the slowest recorded language with a rate as low as 5.18 syllables per second.
An important not to bear in mind is that languages with either a complex tone (4 or more tones), or complex consonant clusters, tend to be slower while languages with no tone, or a very simple tone system (e.g., a 1 tone vs no tone contrast like most dialects of Japanese) and primarily CV (consonant-vowel) syllable structure tend to be faster.
excerpt from TheLanguageNerds
Japanese is the fastest recorded language. It has a rate of 7.84 syllables per second.
2. Spanish:
Spanish is right behind Japanese and is nearly as fast with a rate of 7.82 syllables per second.
3. French
French lags just a little far behind with a rate of 7.18 syllables per second.
4. Italian
Italian is relatively slower than Spanish and French with a rate of 6.99 syllables per second.
5. English
English is among the slower languages with a rate of 6.19 syllables per second.
6. German
Before last is German with a speed of 5.97 syllables per second.
7. Mandarin
Mandarin is the slowest recorded language with a rate as low as 5.18 syllables per second.
An important not to bear in mind is that languages with either a complex tone (4 or more tones), or complex consonant clusters, tend to be slower while languages with no tone, or a very simple tone system (e.g., a 1 tone vs no tone contrast like most dialects of Japanese) and primarily CV (consonant-vowel) syllable structure tend to be faster.
excerpt from TheLanguageNerds