2min chapter

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#142 – John McWhorter on key lessons from linguistics, the virtue of creoles, and language extinction

80,000 Hours Podcast

CHAPTER

Can People Communicate Meaningful Information More Quickly in Some Languages?

If a language squishes units of meaning more closely together than another one, it often is spoken a tiny bit more slowly. So I'm not aware of a language where you can get across more in less time. Spanish or English might go by faster because we have fewer units of meaning within one word and so we can go faster. For it to go by too quickly would go beyond what it would seem the brain is specified for.

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