XPost: rec.puzzles, alt.usage.english   
   From: HenHanna@NewsGrouper   
      
   Is it also the case that... the rate of Info-delivery   
    (bits per Second) is pretty much the same all over?   
      
    But NYC folks (and MIT students) talk much faster ???   
      
      
   Tilde posted:   
      
   >   
   > https://phys.org/news/2025-08-universal-rhythm-global-analysis-reveals.html   
   >   
   > Have you ever noticed that a natural conversation   
   > flows like a dance—pauses, emphases, and turns   
   > arriving just in time? A new study has discovered   
   > that this isn't just intuition; there is a   
   > biological rhythm embedded in our speech.   
   >   
   > The work is published in the journal Proceedings of   
   > the National Academy of Sciences.   
   >   
   > According to the study, led by Dr. Maya Inbar,   
   > alongside Professors Eitan Grossman and Ayelet N.   
   > Landau, human speech across the world pulses to the   
   > beat of what are called intonation units, short   
   > prosodic phrases that occur at a consistent rate of   
   > one every 1.6 seconds.   
   >   
   > The research analyzed over 650 recordings in 48   
   > languages spanning every continent and 27 language   
   > families. Using a novel algorithm, the team was able   
   > to automatically identify intonation units in   
   > spontaneous speech, revealing that regardless of   
   > the language spoken, from English and Russian to   
   > endangered languages in remote regions, people   
   > naturally break their speech into these rhythmic   
   > chunks.   
   >   
   > "These findings suggest that the way we pace our   
   > speech isn't just a cultural artifact, it's deeply   
   > rooted in human cognition and biology," says Dr.   
   > Inbar. "We also show that the rhythm of intonation   
   > units is unrelated to faster rhythms in speech,   
   > such as the rhythm of syllables, and thus likely   
   > serves a different cognitive role."   
   > ...   
   >   
   > https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2425166122   
   > A universal of speech timing: Intonation units   
   > form low-frequency rhythms   
   >   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)   
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