Rate of speech

A characteristic of some Settler men is an extremely rapid rate of speech. In the Sinoe corpus, some men speak very, very fast; no women do. My awareness of a sex difference in this regard was brought to my attention in a Settler community in Grand Bassa County. I commented to a Settler friend that I had sometimes been unable to understand his uncle because of the uncle’s rapidity of speech. My friend’s answer was that this was how some men talked. My friend’s uncle and also the fastest talker among the Sinoe Settlers were both members of the clergy. It is possible that fast speech is intended to signal erudition and formal education, but only among men.