In Hamlet, Polonius tells King Claudius that brevity is the soul of wit . If we can believe that the results of a biblical study, it is also the soul of English. The number of syllables different languages require to translate the Gospel according to Mark were compared. Here are the results: English, 29,000; Teutonic languages (average), 32,650; French, 36,500; Slavic languages (average); 36,500; Romance languages (average), 40,200; Indo-Iranian languages (average), 43,100
