What is Talking?
Looking for some talking facts? Before we dive into talking facts, let us learn what is talking. Talking is a form of communication which uses words to express your opinion or views.
One of the commonest things that people do is talk. Everyone talks and a single day doesn’t pass by without talking.
So, why not learn a few talking facts? You will be surprised! Let’s begin!
Talking Facts: 1-11
1. According to a 2007 research, men and women speak almost the same number of words – 16,000 words a day.
2. However, men interrupt three times more than women interrupt.
3. Did you know that there is a town in Georgia in the USA called Talking Rock? The origins of the name of the town is not clear to date.
4. According to a 2015 study, an average Briton spends nearly five months of his/her life talking about the weather.
5. A Spanish study in 2005 discovered that rats can be trained to differentiate between spoken Dutch and spoken Japanese.
6. As per a 2013 research, people spend 60% of their talking time talking about themselves!
7. Fear of public speaking is called glossophobia. Sudden ability to speak in a previously unknown language is called glossolalia. In technical terms, talking in one’s sleep is called somniloquence or somniloquy.
8. The fastest rate of public speaking in the history of mankind is 327 words per minute. This feat was achieved by John F. Kennedy in 1961.
9. According to research, English speakers use ‘um’ before a long pause and use ‘uh’ for a short pause.
10. The largest number of words a bird could speak was 1,728. It was recorded in 1994 for a budgerigar.
11. You can sleep talk for a maximum of thirty seconds.
Talking Facts: 12-22
12. Somniloquence or sleep talking is actually a sleep disorder.
13. Sleep talking is mostly comprehensible to your partner during the REM stage of sleep than in any other stage of sleep.
14. Did you know that sleep talking is genetic?
15. Sleep talking occurs more in children and men than women.
16. However, it is common that children grow out of sleep talking. Only 5% adults are sleep talkers. Sleep talking may reoccur any time.
17. Men spend two-thirds of their time talking about themselves. On the contrary, women spend just one-third of their time talking about themselves.
18. 80% of the conversations are about someone else meaning we spend 80% of our time gossiping.
19. Most people walk when they talk on the phone. Psychologists believe that they are making up for the lack of non-verbal communication and body language that usually accompany a conversation.
20. There is an anxiety disorder called selective mutism. In this it becomes impossible for children to speak in specific situations like in front of strangers or at a new place, etc.
21. According to a 2015 study, an average American receives or sends text messages five times more than receiving phone calls or calling.
22. Alex, a gray parrot, was able to identify the different objects he was familiar with and answer questions about those objects.
Talking Facts: 23-33
23. A nervous system disorder called primary progressive aphasia negatively affects speaking and understanding words.
24. Bottlenose dolphins talk or use clicks and whistles to communicate with each other.
25. According to a legend, Demosthenes, a famous Greek orator, cured his stutter by practicing speech with small pebbles in his mouth.
26. Children first speak content words like doggo, momma, dada, etc. and then speak functional words like the, or, and, etc.
27. Children learn the language which they grow up around irrespective of whether you taught them or not.
28. In childhood apraxia of speech, a motor speech disorder, the messages to the vocal muscles from the brain don’t transmit properly. The children with this issue require a speech therapist.
29. Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Moses, Friedrich Nietzsche, England’s King George VI, and Greek orator Demosthenes were famous stutterers.
30. According to Albert Mehrabian, a psychologist, communication is mostly 55% body language, 7% of the words used, and 38% tone of voice.
31. The speech of humans predates the written language by thousands of years. As of today, no one knows how the old spoken language is.
32. The world’s fastest talker in this world is Sean Shannon of Canada. He can speak 655 words per minute and he finished Hamlet’s soliloquy `To be or not to be‘ (contains 260 words) in just 23.8 seconds at Edinburgh on 30 August 1995.
33. 50 million people in this world suffer from stuttering!
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