Is Minnesota Now The Land Of 10,000 Fast Talkers?

Even though we live in a climate that can quickly numb your lips and tongue during the winter months, it's apparently not slowing down Minnesotans' ability to talk quickly!

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, a 'fast-talker' is defined as someone who is good at persuading people to do what they want. Meanwhile, Merriam-Webster defines 'fast-talk' as a manner of speech used "to influence or persuade by fluent, facile, and usually deceptive or tricky talk."

So when I saw this new survey that said Minnesota is home to some of the fast-talkers in the country, I thought they meant *that* definition. As it turns out, however, we're not fast-talkers in Minnesota because what we're saying comes off as being a little too slick, but we actually just speak very quickly.

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In fact, we speak so quickly here in the North Star State that no other state compares. That's right, Minnesota is the state that's home to the fastest talkers in the United States, at least according to this new survey by language training site, Preply.

Preply said their crew analyzed data from two nationwide studies based on YouTube videos and call recordings and then ranked the average speech rates of Americans from 114 cities and all 50 states.

And, yeah, Minnesota is the fastest-talking state in the country, with an average rate of 5.34 syllables per second! That's considerably faster than the average U.S. rate of just 5.09 syllables per second, Preply noted. I guess Minnesota really *is* the Land of 10,000 Fast Talkers!

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While not number one, Iowa is also home to some pretty fast talkers, as the Hawkeye State came in third in the Preply survey. Behind the Cheddar Curtain over in my homestate of Wisconsin, those Cheeseheads talk somewhat slower, coming in at #12 on the Preply survey.

So if we're the fastest talkers here in the Bold North, where do you find the slowest talkers? For that, you'd need to head south to the state of Louisiana, where natives down in the Pellican State speak at a leisurely rate of just 4.78 syllables per second. You can find the entire list below.

Courtesy Preply