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Is there a syntactical reason why Julia can be fast but Python can't? Would it be possible to use Python syntax and get the same LLVM performance? (aside from the difficulty of writing a new interpreter)

Put another way, does Julia sacrifice something relative to Python? Are the objects less flexible?

Could I write Python that compiles to Julia, without losing features?

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If you're interested in this topic, you should watch this talk by Steven G. Johnson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhlVHoeB05A

tl;dr of the talk: Syntax has little to no effect on how a language performs. What distinguishes Julia from Python is that Julia's semantics were designed to be amenable to type inference. The results of type inference allow Julia's compiler to generate very efficient machine code.

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