BBC Science Focus reports:

The spoken word is in decline, according to new research from the universities of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) and Arizona.

Psychologists discovered that, since 2005, the average person has spoken less each year than the year before, by approximately 338 fewer words per day.

That’s equivalent to a yearly loss of around 120,000 words per person, representing thousands of lost human interactions.

“Small changes in daily behaviour accumulate over time,” said first author Dr Valeria Pfeifer, assistant professor of linguistics and psychology at UMKC.

“A gradual decline in spoken conversation might not be obvious from day to day, but over many years, it could change how people connect with one another.”

Overall, the scientists found that between 2005 and 2019, there was a 28 per cent decline in spoken words. [Continue reading…]