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Yanny or Laurel?

PostPosted: Fri May 18, 2018 5:40 pm
by SetsunaKou
Don't know if you'd heard about this (probably you have---everyone is talking about it) but there is a crazy synthesized speech where people hear different words!

What word do you guys hear?:

https://binged.it/2rZ8goa


My mom and I hear 'Yanny' but my sister and dad hear 'Laurel'!


Anyway, to make a long story short[ish] one version of what happened is that a synthesized dictionary audio tool (the type that speaks for blind people or who just want to hear how to pronounce a word) was played over a loudspeaker at a school, for the word 'laurel' and the kids who all listened-----half heard 'Yanny' and the other half heard 'Laurel'!

Another story is that the clip was initially posted online by a high school student who needed to learn the definition of laurel, so she searched for the word on Vocabulary.com, but when she played the pronunciation recording, she thought she was hearing "yanny."

Not sure which is the true orginator of this.

But certainly a student named Cloe Feldman posted it on her social media account 2 days ago as 'what do you hear?' and it's just exploded over everywhere since!

The scientists and audiologists say both are correct and that the 'fake' voice could be interpreted by human brains EITHER way, depending on if we focus on the low frequencies or high frequencies!

This site below lets you move the frequency until you hear the opposite. I hear 'Yanny' so I had to go 3/4 to the left (lower) until I could hear 'Laurel'. For my sis, I had to slide the switch 3/4 to the right (higher) for her to even hear 'Yanny' at all and even so she said it sounded more like 'Yally' and it hurt her ears.
Here's the tool:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 ... ebate.html

But as it is, with the either/or frequency, it really could be either! The scientists say there is no 'wrong' answer, just how one's brain interprets the frequencies. Wow, huh? Sort of like those pictures where you can see a vase or 2 faces; or an old lady or young lady? Both are there, just how you see it.

Re: Yanny or Laurel?

PostPosted: Fri May 18, 2018 6:01 pm
by Dark Angel
The first time I heard it, it sounded different than this one. I clearly heard Laurel the first time and now this time, hearing the one you linked to, I hear Yanny.

Re: Yanny or Laurel?

PostPosted: Sat May 19, 2018 9:28 pm
by ShortNCuddlyAm
I hear laurel, husband hears yanny. It got a bit tense the other night :D

He did find a clip where someone examined the audio and it looks like it might actually be two clips overlaid - one saying yanny and the other saying laurel. I'll see if I can find it again.

Re: Yanny or Laurel?

PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2018 11:59 am
by Trethowan
I heard laurel too, and my husband heard yanny. We also disagreed on the blue/gold dress thing. Ha!