Pastabos dėl lietuvių kalbėjimo tempo

ACTA LINGUISTICA LITHUANICA XLVIII (2003), 49-57 ASTA KAZLAUSKIENĖ, KRISTINA VELIČKAITĖ Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas, Kaunas The article presents an investigation into the overall rate of Lithuanian speech, based on the speech of eight individuals (four men and four women, belonging to two different age groups) living in Kaunas. The average age of the younger group is 27, that of the older group is 55,5. Each respondent was asked to talk on a freely chosen topic for about 20 minutes. In each case, the investigated amount of text did not exceed 36 000 syllables. The average number of syllables per second is chosen as a speech indicator. The average rate of the respondents’ free narration was 3,8 *0,6 syll./sec., the confidence interval was 3,2+4,3 syll./sec. The average speech rate of women was 4+0,4 syll./sec. (3,4+4,5 syll./ sec.), that of men 3,6 0,9 syll./sec. (2.2+4.9 syll./sec.). Internal differences in speech rate among women and men proved statistically insignificant: the calculated value of Student’s criterion is lower than the critical value: t(6)=0,910- <t(0,95)=1,- 943; the confidence levels overlap (2,2-+4,9 syll./sec. Jor men, 3,4+4,5 syll./sec. for women). The average speech rate of the younger age group was 4,2:+0,4 syll./sec. (3,5+4,9 syll./sec.), that of the older group 3,3*0,5 syll./sec. (2.5+4.2 syll./sec.). Such a difference is statistically significant: 1(6)=2,567>- 1(0,95)=1,943. The pace of speech is not a one-sided matter. From a linguistic point of view, it is the speed of articulation of words, syllables or sounds. Psychologists are interested in what the tempo tells us about the speaker’s personality and how the listener perceives the tempo of the speech. In rhetoric, the tempo of speech is an important intonational measure. Speech speed performs a number of functions. It can be constitutional, situational and individual (Ceplytis 1974: 136). Constitutional tempo is characteristic of a language or its forms, such as a dialect. The situational tempo depends on the speaking circumstances: the number of listeners, the acoustical characteristics of the room. The individual pace is determined by a person's personal characteristics, for example, temperament. It is also a semiotic term, meaning that it has a semantic function. Intonation tempo can be divided into intellectual, emotional and visual. Intellectual is a term used to describe the slowing or accelerating of speech in order to show the importance of the text being spoken, or vice versa, its insignificance. Emotional tempo expresses the emotions of the speaker, in this case the pace of speech can be difficult to control. The visual tempo expresses the speed of the action the speaker is telling about or imitates the pace of another person’s speech (Ceplytis 1974: 136-139). All these functions are also performed by the speaking pace of Lithuanian common language, but so far they have not been described or studied. This thesis attempts to analyze the constitutional tempo of Lithuanian speech, although it does not avoid comments about situational or individual tempo; attempts to determine whether the rate can depend on gender, age, education. There is no work that examines the Lithuanian speaking pace more extensively. A study of the speech tempo of Northern Samogitians carried out in the Phonetics Laboratory of Vilnius University in the early 1970s is worth mentioning (Girdenis, Lakienė 1975: 50 | ASTA KAZLAUSKIENĖ, KRISTINA VELIČKAITĖ 71-74). Rhetoric books (Koženiauskienė 1999; Bielienė 2000) contain data on how fast Lithuanians speak, but these are personal observations of the authors themselves, not data determined during experiments. This thesis investigates the speech pace of eight people currently living in Kaunas. Five of them have lived in Kaunas all their lives, the other three have come here to live from Telsiai (A. G. m./y. ', 8 years ago), Prienai district (A. S. v./s., 20 years ago), Lazdijai (A. P. m./s., 31 years ago). Attention was paid to the age and gender of the informants: the language of four men and four women, four younger and four older people was recorded. The average age of the younger group is 27 years, the older group is 55.5 years. Four informants have higher education, two — higher, two — secondary. All of them speak the common spoken language of Lithuanian, which is not as regular as the common written language of Lithuanian, which is mandatory in public life. The participants did not know the objectives of the experiment, they were only told that their language was being studied. Each informant was asked to speak for a certain period of time (about 20 minutes) on a subject of their choice. The main requirement is to tell, not to read. All informants complied with this requirement. Since they had to speak for a specific period of time, not as long as the informants could naturally tell without stopping, they could take a break during the conversation. Not all informants took advantage of this opportunity. Breaks were not counted into the total speaking time. It must be said that the informants’ speech was not entirely spontaneous, because they could have thought about what they would say in advance. However, this hardly affected their speaking pace, since extralinguistic parameters of oral language (in this case, pauses, tempo) are usually not consciously controlled (Ignatova 1999: 64). The texts were recorded on a dictaphone. Records are spelled (compiled in WinWord format), longer pauses are marked. Each informant- ’s twenty-minute speaking time is examined. The total length of the investigated text of all informants — 2 hours 40 minutes. This amounts to more than 36,000 syllables. We believe that this length of texts should be sufficient to identify the main trends in the overall speaking pace?. Furthermore, speaking for a long time by the same person (especially unfamiliar and still knowing that they are being recorded) can get tired and therefore change their natural speaking speed. The average number of syllables uttered in one second (spm) was chosen as the speech speed index. The choice was determined by the fact that the fluctuation of the syllable (i.e., the random deviation from the average) is one of the smallest compared to a sentence, word, sound, morpheme or other element (Ceplytis 1974: 127). The computer application developed for this study counted all vowels and diphthongs® used by each informant. The first letter written next to the informant- 's initials indicates the gender, the second — the generation (younger, older). 2 We have much more recordings (dialects, dialogues, examples of various functional styles), but their encryption takes a lot of time, because we try to transcribe as accurately as possible to suit our other studies. Therefore, the data of this study can be supplemented in the future and provide not only the basic tempo characteristics, but also their dependence on various aspects of speech. The program was composed by T. Kazlauskas. It finds vowels used after the soft sign, diphthongs and pure unprepounded vowels (the sum of which is shown at the end of the text) in a specific text saved in WinWord format. NOTES ON LITHUANIAN SPEAKING TEMPOS | 51 aaa, éé¢, mmm and others. However, those syllables that do not form words were also counted, i.e. syllables of incomplete words were counted, if only the syllable was pronounced completely, e.g.: z... uporządkować, jedna gorzej... najszybciej and so on. Pauses between words were left because the overall pace of speech is determined by pauses, stops and continuations, not only by the speed of sounds, syllables or word articulation. We divided the resulting number by the recording time. The data were then processed using mathematical statistical methods. This was done with the STDEV, CONFIDENCE and TDIST functions of MS Excel. Statistical parameters used in such works are calculated: arithmetic mean, standard deviation, confidence interval, pace difference evaluated by the Student criterion. The results show that the average speech speed of our informants is 3.8:+0.6 scm/sec, confidence interval — 3.2+4.3 scm/sec. According to Girdenis and Lakienė, the speaking speed of Northern Samogitians is 3.4+0.6 scm./sec. (confidence interval 3.2+3.6 scm./sec.). If we compare these data with our estimated average common language pace, we would see that Girdenis and Lakienė’s assumption that Northern Samogitians speak slower than Lithuanian common language speakers is confirmed. However, attention should be paid to the age of the informants. Almost all informants studied by Girdenis and Lakienė were older than 60 years, and the average age of the informants of this study was 41 years, meaning that the average age of the participants of one and the other experiment differs by almost twenty years. Therefore, it would be more appropriate to compare the speaking pace of Northern Samogitians with the speaking pace of older people. The older participants of our experiment uttered an average of 3.3+0.5 scm./sec. (2.5 + 4.2 scm./sec.). In this case, the pace of speech is similar for both dialect and common language speakers. According to Ceplytis’s study (1974: 129), Latvians pronounce an average of 4.3 syllables. One might think that Latvians speak faster. However, it should be noted that Ceplytis studied the Latvian speaking speed in a different way: three speakers said the same text. In this study, the speech was spontaneous, so the pace depended not only on the ability to articulate words quickly or slowly, but also on the ability to think, because they had to think of what to say themselves. When a person speaks spontaneously, he does not regulate his speaking pace, he speaks at a relatively natural, comfortable speed. What is different when a person needs to say a specific phrase. The narrator may try to say it clearly, and this may slightly disrupt the natural pace of the speech. A person who usually speaks quickly may slow down, and a slow-speaking person may accelerate his or her speech. So the pace of spontaneous and non-spontaneous speech can differ. me reading experiment. Five speakers read two identical texts (excerpts from a fictional work and a popular science article). The results of the preliminary test show that Lithuanians read an average of 4.6 syllables per second. This means that our and Latvians' reading speeds are similar. Interestingly, the speed of reading did not depend on the type of text being read: both texts were read at similar speed. During the experiment, we noticed one more thing. We asked the speakers to read the same text very slowly and very quickly. When reading slowly, the speakers spoke at an average of 3.3 scm/sec. (talk time increased by an average of 20 sec- 52 | ASTA KAZLAUSKIENĖ, KRISTINA VELIČKAITĖ gių), fast reading —5.7 scm./sec. (talk time decreased by an average of only seconds). It must be said that the 12 listener’s perceived speed of speech can differ greatly from the experimentally determined one, because the perception of the tempo depends on both the phonetic and the syntactic structure of the text, as well as on the semantic meaning of the spoken text (Ceplytis 1974: 135). For example, the pace of the following phrases will be perceived differently: "I speak fast" and "I speak slowly", although they will be pronounced at the same speed. The listener will be affected by the meaning of the words slowly and quickly. The fact that the actual speaking speed differs from the perceived one can be confirmed by listening to the informants’ recordings. The Lithuanian students who did not participate in the experiment, when asked to classify all informants according to their speaking speed, were able to identify the slowest and fastest speaking informant with relative ease, but it was difficult for them to classify the other speakers according to their speaking speed, especially when the difference was less than 0.5 scm/sec. Some scientists measure the speed of speech not in syllables per second, but in words per minute. Koženiauskienė (1999: 357) states that a Lithuanian speaker speaks at 120-140 words per minute, while lectures are read at a slower rate — about 90-100 words per minute. The average speaking speed of the informants in our study is 107 words per minute. It is unclear what language the people spoke. Perhaps orators who did not tell, but read. When determining the speaking pace, choosing different tempo indices (syllables per second or words per minute), it was observed that the informant sequence did not match (see tape). Two slowly speaking informants (V. V. v./s. and A. S. v./s.) and four faster speaking informants (J. L. m./s., I. L. m./j., A. G. m./j. and A. Ž. v./j.) remain in the same position, but the speakers A. P. m./s. and A. B. v./j. are changing places. This is related to the length of the words they used, for example, A. P. m./s. used a lot of monosyllabic words, which in her speech often had an accent. This shows that measuring the speed of speech in words per minute is not very accurate. It would hardly be accurate (and, most importantly, difficult to objectively compare) even if we counted phonetic words (i.e., we would add monosyllabic non-independent words to multisyllabic ones), because the length of the words themselves varies greatly in the language. TABLE 1. LITHUANIAN SPEAKING SPEED Informants Measured by words Measured by syllables per minutę per sekundę V. V. v./s. 68.5 2.6 Ą. S. v./s 78,9 3,3 A. B. v./y. 99.0 3,6 A. P. m./s. 110,3 3,5 J. L. mds. 114.,7 to oe REMARKS ON THE LITHUANIAN SPEECH SPEED | 53 | TABLE THESIS Informants Measured by words Measured by syllables per minutę per sekundę I. L. m./d. 118,5 4,2 A. G. mJ. 127,5 4.3 A. Z. vj. 139.6 4,7 Average 107.1 3.8 Another possible index of speech speed: how many sounds a speaker utters per second. Since the average syllable length in Lithuanian is 2.4 phonemes (Karosienė, Girdenis 1994: 34), it can be concluded that our informants uttered an average of 9 phonemes per second. We tried to determine how the tempo changes during the speech, so the text of each informant was divided into four sections. Each episode lasts five minutes. The number of syllables in each segment was counted and the average speech rate for that segment was determined (see Figure 1). Figure 1 shows that the speed of speech varies. At first glance, there is no obvious trend in the pace of change. It is possible that the variation in speech speed is quite individual. This idea is supported by the similarity of the overall averages of each section: 3.7: 3.8: 3.7: 3.8 scm./sec. We should not forget that the pace of speech can depend on the content of the story: some things we tell faster, others slower. For this reason, there can be such large changes in the tempo of specific narrators during one narrative. 1 PAV. SPEECH SPEED AT DIFFERENT TIME INTERVALS 4,9 44 + -e-V. V. v/s. | p —e—A. S. v/s. | x 39 -m—A. P. m./s. ja —Ą—A. B. v./y. gs —*— J. L. m/s 5 3,4 T —a— mJ. LL No! -e-A. G.m./d. o 9— = E. -8-A 2 vii 3 29 | © -+ = to a + 0 —gt 24 First Second Third Fourth section section section section section 54 | ASTA KAZLAUSKIENĖ, KRISTINA VELIČKAITĖ Another interesting thing: four of the eight informants spoke at a pace most similar to their average in the second part of the story, three in the third and only one at the end. This means that a person will start speaking at his most natural speed not immediately, but at least five minutes after the beginning of the monologue. There is a stereotype that women speak more than men. This implies that women also speak faster than men. These are unfounded beliefs. Ignatova (1999: 64), investigating the relationship between the parameters of monologue speech and individual psychological characteristics, observed that the differences in tempo possibilities are related to individual gender differences. This study also shows that men and women speak at different speeds. According to our research, the average speaking pace of women is 4+0.4 scm./sec. (3,.4+4,5 scm./sec- .), 0 men —3,6+0,9 scm./sec. (2.2+4.9 skm./sec- .). The average speaking speed of men and women differs by almost 0.5 scm/sec. However, the most likely speaker in this experiment was not a woman, but a man. Informant A. Ž. v./j. speech rate —4.8 scm./ sec., and the most likely woman speaking A. G. m./j. speed 4.3 scm/sec If we compare the average pace of men and women, we would see that in the women’s group (3.6: 3.8: 4.2: 4.3 m/s) the pace fluctuations are not as pronounced as in the men’s group (2.6: 3.3: 3.6: 4.8 m/s). Although the speaking speed of men and women differs slightly, it is not possible to say that women speak faster than men, because the statistical analysis shows that the difference in the speaking speed of women and men is statistically insignificant: the calculated value of the Student criterion is less than the critical value: t(6)=0.910<- t(0.95)=1.943; the confidence intervals converge (men 2.2+4.9 scm./sec.; women 3.4+4.5 scm./sec.). According to Girdenis and Lakienė, the age of the informants has the greatest influence on the variation of the tempo (1975: 72). Similar trends are observed in this study. The average speaking speed of the younger age group was 4.2+0.4 scm/sec. (3.5+4.9 scm./sec.), and the elderly — 3.3+0.5 scm./sec. (2.5+4.2 skm./sec.). The pace of these groups differs by almost one syllable (see Figure 2). This is twice as much as the difference between men's and women's speaking speeds. Thus, age has a greater influence on the pace of speech than the gender of the informant. Almost all older informants spoke slower than younger speakers. The results of the statistical analysis of the speech tempo of different age groups show that the difference in the tempo is statistically significant: the calculated value of the Student criterion is greater than the critical value of this criterion t(6)=2.567>- 1(0.95)=1.943. It is difficult to say whether there is a big difference in the pace of speech between youth and old age. However, the effects of the aging process can slow down the pace of speech, as memory and orientation are weakened, and older people have more difficulty remembering names or less frequently used words (Neverauskas 1999: 10). Therefore, for example, the informant V. V. v./s. when telling about events thirty years ago, he would make longer pauses when it was necessary to remember the names of places. Informant J. L. m./s. spoke about events of the same age and easily remembered names or other details. Informant J. L. m./s. spoke on behalf of the informant V. V. v./s. 1.2 scm./sec. faster. Although age is very important for the pace of speech, individual characteristics also have a great influence. REMARKS ON LITHUANIAN SPEECH TIME | 55 2 PAV. YOUTH IR ADULTS AND YOUNG PERSONS INFORMANTS GROUPS SPEECH TIME 45 4 Younger informants Senior informants There seems to be no evidence that the pace of speech depends on a person's education. The number of words a person knows depends on his level of knowledge. At least a knowledgeable person gets by su 2000 — 3000 words. Writers' vocabulary reaches up to 8000 — 10 000 words (Bielienė 2000: 150). Therefore, there may be an indirect relationship between education and speech ir speed. Theoretically, a more educated person should have less pauses than an uneducated tų person of the same sex, age, temperament, because the vocabulary is larger, it is easier for him to find suitable words. jo ir Although the four informants with higher education spoke faster than the others, (4,1+0,6 they did not 3,2+5,1 achieve the same results. ; km/sec) už speakers with ir medium-high frequency cpm/sec ; skm/sec ), (3,4+0,5 t(6)=1,804<t(0,95)=1,943, 2,6+4,3 however, we cannot 0 be completely satisfied with these results, because the three informants who spoke most likely are pasikliauti representatives of the younger generation (see section 4.4). 3 Figure 1. ir the difference in speech speed could be caused by age, O ne education. 3 PAV. SPEECH TIME IR EDUCATION RELATION The pace of speech (km/sec/) Informant 2] KL} @ @ e 2] K e || r @ > < [+] [72] a | @ || z | = raj 5 = = gS | x | g | 2 2 |B | £228 1% = | | 2 > > > > > 218 I | w | © 2 © © e || | =! -| | | |] a | || V. V. | A. S. | AP. | AB | J. L. | LL. AG AZ|| vis. | vis. | mis. | vii. mis. | mA | mi | vd | | | 56 | ASTA KAZLAUSKIENĖ, KRISTINA VELIČKAITĖ Education, apparently, cannot be a decisive factor in the speech pace simply because the speech pace does not reflect the quality of speech or thoughts. Education is related to the quality of language. In addition, speaking depends a lot on what kind of education — humanistic, technical or otherwise — a person has acquired. Each person's speaking pace is individual. There is no doubt that it is related to the psychophysiological characteristics of the human being, for example, with the human temperament, the speed of neurophysiological processes, etc. (Ceplytis 1974: 137). When the rate of neurophysiological processes changes for some reason (due to aging, depression, trauma), the pace of speech also changes. The spontaneous pace of human speech is innate. Changes in tempo, the nature of pauses, intonation and other aspects of oral language are often related to the state of the speaker (Ignatova 1999: 52). Perhaps this is why the speed of speech of some informants was different than expected. The speed of their speech may have been affected by the fact that their speech was recorded—- which caused some of them a stressful state, accelerating thinking for some and slowing it for others. Some believe that certain moods and emotions affect the pace of speech. For example, anger, boredom and joy accelerate it, while sadness, solemnity and surprise slow it down (Ceplytis 1974: 138). The moods of the informants remained constant during the conversation. For some, the recording was stressful and their emotions were suppressed. Joy, laughter usually slowed the overall pace, because there were pauses at that moment, and the joke itself sounded faster than a neutrally pronounced phrase. Therefore, it can be assumed that a person's mood or emotions affect the pace of speech only if logical thinking is suppressed. However, this is already the subject of further research. After analyzing the results of the preliminary study of the Lithuanian speaking pace, the following main conclusions can be drawn. 1. The pace of speech depends mainly on age: younger people speak faster than older ones. 2. The speed of speech depends little on the speaker- 's gender and education. Preliminary findings suggest that the range of speaking speed is larger in the male group than in the female group. 3. Most of all, apparently, the pace of speech depends on the personal characteristics of a person, which are the most stable and slowest to change. The characteristics of the human manner determine the so-called general pace of speech, according to which people are divided into fast-speaking and slow-speaking. Speech speed is a complex language phenomenon. Its parameters are determined by many linguistic and non-linguistic factors at the same time (temperament, age, linguistic situation, etc.), which still need to be studied in detail. BIELIENE, J. 2000: /the art of speech, Vilnius: Dailės akademijos leidykla. CEPLYTIS, L. 1974: Anaaus peueeoiti unmonauuu, Pura: 3unarne. IGNATOVA, N. 1999: Relationships between the parameters of monologue speech and individual psychological characteristics. Psychology 20, 51-66. GIRDENIS, A., LAKIENE, A. 1975: Speaking Tempo in Northern Samogitian. Linguistics 27 (1), 71-74. 57 KAROSIENE, V., GIRDENIS, A. 1994: Frequency of syllable types in Lithuanian common language. Linguistics 43 (1), KOZENIAUSKIENE, R. 1999: Rhetoric, Vilnius: Institute for the Publishing of Science and Encyclopedias. NEVERAUSKAS, J. 1999: Aging. Medicine and something else for everyone 11, 10. Asta Kazlauskienė, Kristina 34-42. Velickaite Received 03 31 2003 Vytautas the Great University S. Daukanto g. 28, 3000 Kaunas, Lithuania [email protected]