I just learned Trump and Putin have both listened to the recording and are discussing as I type this through a not yet discovered back channel. We just need to wait for Putin to declare the answer and then for Trump to dutifully tweet it. Consider the matter solved comrades.
PopSci states those with better high frequency hearing hear ’yanny’ and those with poorer high frequency hearing, typically older listeners, hear ’laurel’. I’ve changed my mind. I now believe what I hear clearest is an insecure whiner desperately wanting to congratulate himself and any others who hear ’yanny’.
It makes no difference what word was originally recorded, yanny or laurel. What matter is what you hear. My understanding is that the original recording was masked by some random frequencies to fool human hearing. When we heard the sound on TV, we looked at each other and my wife (who is practically deaf) said all she could hear was laurel, while all I heard was yanny. I’ll accept that it may have to do with the shape of your inner ear. FWIW, congratulations to those who heard yanny (lol).
Are you sure? I heard 'laurel'.
According to the article, an acoustic expert thinks it was originally recorded as 'laurel'. Copied and pasted from the article:
"Brad Story from the University of Arizona's Speech Acoustics and Physiology Lab took a fine-toothed comb through the clip: “I'm pretty sure the original recording was 'laurel,'" he says. "The reason it can be confused is that there is a family of frequencies produced by the shape of our throat and mouth."
I could only hear “yanny” but my wife could only hear “laurel.” I heard them say on TV that it was added distortion that causes the two reactions. The bottom line was that those with better hearing heard “yanny” while others heard laurel. My wife is nearly deaf so I believe what they said. Congratulations to those hearing “yanny.”
That really is something. The first time I listened I heard nothing but Yanny, so much so I wondered how anyone could hear anything else. Tried a few hours later and did not hear Yanny, but a non-word sounding like Alurel, i.e., definitely the "A" before the "L".
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