Fluent speech in all languages fluctuates at about four elements per second

Evidence

The lower left panel in Fig. 16.38 illustrates that the temporal envelope fluctuation of fluent speech can be characterized by a band-pass with a maximum around 4 Hz. This holds true for many different languages like English, French, German or Hungarian, Polish and even Chinese or Japanese. Generally speaking, at “normal” talking speed about four speech elements like syllables in European languages or mora in Japanese are pronounced per second. As outlined in Chap. 10, the band-pass of fluctuation strength centred at 4 Hz (Fig. 10.1) and the temporal envelope variation of fluent speech also centred at 4 Hz illustrate the excellent correlation between speech and hearing system. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1993

Categorization

• XREF: The 4 Hz center of speech fluctuation coupling to the 4 Hz band-pass of fluctuation strength ties directly to the reader’s chapter 10 material on fluctuation strength and to the physics of hearing.