A Linguist Explains Why 'Laurel' Sounds Like 'Yanny'

Re:A Linguist Explains Why 'Laurel' Sounds Like 'Yanny' by jpindar on Wednesday May 16, 2018 @04:47PM (#17086327)

I find that I have to use good headphones to get repeatable results. Otherwise I can hear the same clip differently from one repeat to the next, which is really weird.

Using Audacity and my Sennheisers, a notch filter from about 500 to 1000 Hz reliably changes laurel to yanny in the clip that's being shared on Twitter. There is an intermediate setting where I can hear both at once.

The original source from https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/laurel stays laurel no matter what I do.

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Re:A Linguist Explains Why 'Laurel' Sounds Like 'Yanny' by rimliu on Thursday May 17, 2018 @12:43AM (#17088777)

I first heard this clip on my headphones (some cheap SONY at the office). It was definitely "Laurel". Then while driving home I hear the bit on BBC about this and when it plays over the radio a hear "yanny".

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Re:A Linguist Explains Why 'Laurel' Sounds Like 'Yanny' by glandium on Thursday May 17, 2018 @12:52AM (#17088815)

The original source sounds like it has much better quality than the ambiguous samples I'd heard so far.

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