<p>I wonder if Hungarian is particularly good in this way. It's agglutinative, like German, so the words can be unbearably long, but the grammar of Hungarian is interesting, in that word order is much more flexible than other languages. Sentences can be said in multiple word orders and still be "correct", while the emphasis required by word order gives nuance and helps to shape the precise meaning of the sentence. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_grammar" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia entry</a> gives some examples. I'd think that having that kind of flexibility available in a native language would be a benefit... I've heard that the grand history of science and mathematics in Hungary is credited to the kind of mental flexibility that speaking Hungarian offers. In some sense, math's commutative and transitive properties are built-in to the language itself.</p>

<p>Full disclosure: my knowledge of Hungarian consists of a few common words and phrases, and lots of food words... I do love the food in Budapest.</p>

<p>There are also many <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language" rel="nofollow">constructed languages</a> that are specifically designed to facilitate thinking, but, of course, they're not in wide use. Ithkuil and Loglan are well-known examples.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-05T21:50:21.280Z
2013-02-05T21:50:21.280Z
Scott
<p>I remember some empirical research showing that “wordy” languages were spoken faster than more information-dense languages, so that the “information rate” would be more or less constant across languages (sorry, no reference). Of course, this research was concerned with speech rather than silent thought but it could suggest that you would not expect any overall difference between cultures in this respect, which does make sense to me. Note that studying this sort of things requires a lot of care and preliminary ground work as common notions like “word” are not even meaningful units in many languages. Linguists therefore use precisely defined concepts like “phoneme” to measure this. </p>

<p>Also, I would dispute that thinking “in” a language (see my answer to <a href="https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/3738/is-it-possible-to-think-in-a-second-language">Is it possible to think in a second language?</a> for a discussion of this idea) means that one is never mistaken on how to express oneself. The “tip-of-tongue” experience would suggest otherwise. Some thinkers even object to the notion that speaking can generally be seen as merely expressing some previously formed thought.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-01T10:59:22.107Z
2013-07-01T10:59:22.107Z
2017-04-13T12:56:16.417Z
Gala
<p>Sign language I would imagine would be a great language to think with since it is physical and involves body language.  Considering too that we all think different I know sign language, Spanish, and English and find my thoughts bouncing from language to language.  Also what could be considered fast? How do you rate the speed of thoughts and inner conversations in your mind?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-21T18:56:22.500Z
2013-02-21T18:56:22.500Z
Carolina Alanis
<p>If you think in any language you're never misstaken on what word you mean even if there are many words that are spelled/pronounced the same. This causes a language with only one word meaning every possible word there is to work, in theory, if used only while thinking. I don't think I'd be able to think clearly in such a language, though. The fastest language seems, for me, to be no language. It is however hard to not think in a language.</p>

<p>What is the fastest language to think in?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-01-30T15:59:22.710Z
speculation: chinese language uses tones (so the same word may have five different meanings depending on your tone).  So if parallel processing tone and semantics doesn't cost any extra time, then I'd think that gives it a significant advantage in terms of efficiency.
Keegan Keplinger
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-01-30T23:11:53.780Z
I don't think this is answerable.  Even if you could hold everything else but the language that a person speaks as constant, there are too many considerations in terms of focus/attention, etc. to evaluate.
Chuck Sherrington
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-01-31T01:41:21.270Z
@ChuckSherrington I think I remember seeing studies that suggested that mental math is faster in Chinese because of what Xurtio describes (and other structural features of Chinese number names). So a variant of the question might be answerable, but I do think the OP should make fewer assumptions and show some initial research in the question. At least OP should demonstrate Wikipedia-level familiarity with the [Whorf-hypothesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity).
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-01-31T02:26:02.280Z
@ArtemKaznatcheev I could definitely be swayed to "faster" with the proper evidence, but I'm uncomfortable with "fastest", I think.
Chuck Sherrington
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-01-31T04:50:39.160Z
@ArtemKaznatcheev Mental math is faster among Chinese mainly because they associate arithmetic with doing an abacus in the head. I don't think it's a language thing.
Muz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-01-31T04:58:21.843Z
If I were to guess, I'd say the less redundant languages. German is a good one because of the sentence structures. Arabic is very efficient too. It also depends on the subject matter. Malay does poetry in less words than English, but twice as wordy as English for technical/science.
Muz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-07T03:11:27.430Z
I also read that study that mentioned math is faster in Chinese, because their words for numbers are very short. By the time an English speaker thinks "seven plus nine", a Chinese speaker can mentally pronounce more numbers.
Alex Stone
<language>
What is the fastest language to think in?
Drathier
# What is the fastest language to think in?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-01-30)

If you think in any language you're never misstaken on what word you mean even if there are many words that are spelled/pronounced the same. This causes a language with only one word meaning every possible word there is to work, in theory, if used only while thinking. I don't think I'd be able to think clearly in such a language, though. The fastest language seems, for me, to be no language. It is however hard to not think in a language.

What is the fastest language to think in?

**Tags:** language

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: speculation: chinese language uses tones (so the same word may have five different meanings depending on your tone).  So if parallel processing tone and semantics doesn't cost any extra time, then I'd think that gives it a significant advantage in terms of efficiency.  
> **username_2**: I don't think this is answerable.  Even if you could hold everything else but the language that a person speaks as constant, there are too many considerations in terms of focus/attention, etc. to evaluate.  
> **username_3**: @ChuckSherrington I think I remember seeing studies that suggested that mental math is faster in Chinese because of what Xurtio describes (and other structural features of Chinese number names). So a variant of the question might be answerable, but I do think the OP should make fewer assumptions and show some initial research in the question. At least OP should demonstrate Wikipedia-level familiarity with the [Whorf-hypothesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity).  
> **username_2**: @ArtemKaznatcheev I could definitely be swayed to "faster" with the proper evidence, but I'm uncomfortable with "fastest", I think.  
> **username_4**: @ArtemKaznatcheev Mental math is faster among Chinese mainly because they associate arithmetic with doing an abacus in the head. I don't think it's a language thing.  
> **username_4**: If I were to guess, I'd say the less redundant languages. German is a good one because of the sentence structures. Arabic is very efficient too. It also depends on the subject matter. Malay does poetry in less words than English, but twice as wordy as English for technical/science.  
> **username_5**: I also read that study that mentioned math is faster in Chinese, because their words for numbers are very short. By the time an English speaker thinks "seven plus nine", a Chinese speaker can mentally pronounce more numbers.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2013-02-05. Score: 1

I wonder if Hungarian is particularly good in this way. It's agglutinative, like German, so the words can be unbearably long, but the grammar of Hungarian is interesting, in that word order is much more flexible than other languages. Sentences can be said in multiple word orders and still be "correct", while the emphasis required by word order gives nuance and helps to shape the precise meaning of the sentence. The [Wikipedia entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_grammar) gives some examples. I'd think that having that kind of flexibility available in a native language would be a benefit... I've heard that the grand history of science and mathematics in Hungary is credited to the kind of mental flexibility that speaking Hungarian offers. In some sense, math's commutative and transitive properties are built-in to the language itself.

Full disclosure: my knowledge of Hungarian consists of a few common words and phrases, and lots of food words... I do love the food in Budapest.

There are also many [constructed languages](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language) that are specifically designed to facilitate thinking, but, of course, they're not in wide use. Ithkuil and Loglan are well-known examples.


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2013-07-01. Score: 1

I remember some empirical research showing that “wordy” languages were spoken faster than more information-dense languages, so that the “information rate” would be more or less constant across languages (sorry, no reference). Of course, this research was concerned with speech rather than silent thought but it could suggest that you would not expect any overall difference between cultures in this respect, which does make sense to me. Note that studying this sort of things requires a lot of care and preliminary ground work as common notions like “word” are not even meaningful units in many languages. Linguists therefore use precisely defined concepts like “phoneme” to measure this.

Also, I would dispute that thinking “in” a language (see my answer to [Is it possible to think in a second language?](https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/3738/is-it-possible-to-think-in-a-second-language) for a discussion of this idea) means that one is never mistaken on how to express oneself. The “tip-of-tongue” experience would suggest otherwise. Some thinkers even object to the notion that speaking can generally be seen as merely expressing some previously formed thought.


---

### Answer by username_8 on 2013-02-21. Score: -1

Sign language I would imagine would be a great language to think with since it is physical and involves body language. Considering too that we all think different I know sign language, Spanish, and English and find my thoughts bouncing from language to language. Also what could be considered fast? How do you rate the speed of thoughts and inner conversations in your mind?


---

