A website ranked all the states from the "Fastest Talkers" to the "Slowest Talkers" and you may be shocked to see where Illinois is on this list, we were...

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According to the website preply.com, and its list of The Fastest and Slowest Talking States, Illinois is one of the 10 SLOWEST talking states in the country. Illinois ranks 41st on the list with only 4.96 syllables per second, the only states that talk slower than Illinois are all southern states like Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina. On the site they say...

"In an interesting turn of events, the position for the slowest talking city is not occupied by a southern town. Instead, that title belongs to none other than Peoria, Illinois, averaging 4.71 syllables per second...Although Illinois shares a border with Kentucky, it’s interesting to note that neither Peoria nor Joliet are close to this southern border. Instead, Peoria is located in central Illinois and Joliet is situated in northeast Illinois, just 35 miles south of Chicago."

To see all the rankings for yourself just click here!

To say I'm shocked by these rankings would be a massive understatement, I would have bet big money on Illinois being near the top of the fast talker's list. But Illinois has always been a unique state, parts of Illinois feel as southern as Alabama, and then parts of Illinois feel like you're in the biggest urban metropolis in the world. Heck, even in our part of the Tri-States you can talk with people born and raised in Quincy who speak fast and then drive 15 mins to people born and raised in Liberty who speak slowly and with a little twang.

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