Reply To: Slower Native American speech?

#25241

alesa
Participant

in school i studied linguistics, and one of the things i remember coming up in a class on discourse analysis was the perception that native americans spoke slower than other americans. i don’t remember the precise reason the teacher gave, but in the course of talking the concept of silences came up. silences in standard english tend to be negatively stigmatized, one thinks the hearer doesn’t understand what the speaker is saying (or is stupid, etc.) within a few seconds of the response. another issue that came up is that some native american cultures do not have that negative stigma placed upon silences, and that it is better not to answer, or to ponder on the question instead of just answering immediately. i don’t know if native americans do speak slower, but consider the place of silences in discourse and ask, do we speak very fast?

User Detail :  

Name : alesa, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Age : 25, City : New York City, State : NY, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College,