Longitudinal trends in speech tempo: the case of Queen Beatrix

Older talkers speak slower than young ones, but speech tempo has increased in the last decades. Have present-day older talkers slowed down with age or have they sped up with their community? This study investigates longitudinal patterns in articulation rate in formal speeches presented annually by Queen Beatrix between her ages 42 and 74. Her tempo decreased first and then increased in the last decade. Within a speech, acceleration and shortening increased longitudinally. These results suggest that this talker's preferred tempo has not decreased but increased longitudinally, presumably in accommodation to an increasing tempo in the Dutch language community.