Subject: Re: Statistics for word rate in natural speech From: Jont Allen <jontalle@xxxxxxxx> Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2016 07:03:56 -0500 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>All, A comment that I hope is helpful. In our speech work we have learned, from extensive analysis, that the fastest temporal resolution that speech is processed at, by the auditory system, is about 10 [ms]. That means that the natural temporal units for talking about speech (or singing) is in centiseconds [cs]. For example, the plosive burst of say /ka/ is about 1-2 [cs]. I have not found very many examples of less than 1 [cs], as the perception deteriorates quickly when you go below (shorter that) 1 [cs]. Based the numbers below for rapper Big Boi, 379 syllables/m is about 16 [cs] 1000*60/379 = 15.8 This seems like a nice way to quantify this rate. Its close to the perceptual lower limit of 1 [sc]. A full syllable (CV, VC) of 16 seems pretty short. Jont Allen On 06/18/2016 11:39 PM, Arun Chandra wrote: > In Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro", Bartolo sings his revenge aria at > about quarter == 112mm, which means the syllables are going by in > triplets at about 336 per minute. > > in Rossini's "Barber of Seville", the character Bartolo (the same > character, again) sings his accusing aria to Rosina (his ward) at about > quarter == 116mm, which means the sixteenth note syllables are going by > at about 464 per minute. > > the "Modern Major General's Song" by Gilbert and Sullivan goes by at > about 184mm, so it's syllables are about 368 per minute. > > arun > > > > On 6/18/16 4:07 AM, Huron, David wrote: >> We have a wide tolerance for speech with "normal" paces ranging between 170 and 260 syllables per minute. >> (Yuan, Liberman & Cieri, 2006; Towards an integrated understanding of speaking rate in conversation. INTER SPEECH conference Proc.) >> >> Music exhibits an enormous range of lyrical pace. Judy Garland's rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" clocks in at a leisurely 64 syllables per minute. By contrast, in "Ms. Jackson" by OutKast, rapper Big Boi reaches an extraordinary 379 syllables per minute. >> >> -David Huron with Nat Condit-Schultz >> >> ________________________________________ >> From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception [AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx on behalf of Bruno L. Giordano [brungio@xxxxxxxx >> Sent: Friday, June 17, 2016 8:32 AM >> To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx >> Subject: Statistics for word rate in natural speech >> >> Hello, >> >> I am looking for published statistics on average word rate in natural >> speech (words/minute). >> >> Is there some golden standard reference for this? >> >> Thank you! >> >> Bruno >> >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >> Bruno L. Giordano, PhD >> Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology >> 58 Hillhead Street, University of Glasgow >> Glasgow, G12 8QB, Scotland >> T +44 (0) 141 330 5484 >> Www: http://www.brunolgiordano.net >> Email charter: http://www.emailcharter.org/ >>