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"Yanny or Laurel" is an auditory illusion that became popular in May 2018. In the brief audio recording, 53% of over 500,000 people answered on a Twitter poll that they heard a man saying the word "Laurel" (/ˈlɔːrəl/, /ˈlɒrəl/), while 47% reported hearing a voice saying the name "Yanny"(/ˈjæni/).Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). speaking the word "Laurel" as one of 200,000 reference pronunciations produced and published by vocabulary.com in 2007.

Vocabulary.com needed someone who could read words written in the International Phonetic Alphabet with a strong pronunciation. Opera singers were chosen because they know how to read IPA since they have to sing in languages they do not speak.

The discovery of the ambiguity phenomenon is attributed to Katie Hetzel, a 15-year-old freshman at Flowery Branch High School, near Atlanta, Georgia, who posted a description publicly on Instagram on May 11, 2018. The illusion reached further popularity when the student's friend posted it on Reddit the next day. It was picked up by YouTuber Cloe Feldman on her Twitter account.

Pop culture

Notable individuals who responded to the auditory illusion included Ellen DeGeneres, Stephen King, and Chrissy Teigen. Yanni and Laurel Halo, whose names are similar to those given in the auditory illusion, also responded. In a video released by the White House on Twitter, President Donald Trump responded to the meme by saying "I hear covfefe", a reference to his infamous covfefe tweet the previous year.

According to The Guardian, the clip was the most divisive subject on the internet since the gold/blue dress controversy in 2015. Several days after the clip became viral, the team at Vocabulary.com added a separate entry for the word "Yanny", which contained an audio clip identical to "Laurel". Its definition is about the Internet trend.

Scientific analysis

Benjamin Munson, a professor of audiology at the University of Minnesota, suggested that "Yanny" can be heard in higher frequencies while "Laurel" can be heard in lower frequencies. Older people, whose ability to hear higher frequencies is more likely to have degraded, usually hear "Laurel". Kevin Franck, the director of audiology at the Boston hospital Massachusetts Eye and Ear says that the clip exists on a "perceptual boundary" and compared it to the Necker Cube illusion. Professor David Alais from the University of Sydney's school of psychology also compared the clip to the Necker Cube or the face/vase illusion, calling it a "perceptually ambiguous stimulus". Brad Story, a professor of speech, language, and audiology at the University of Arizona said that the low quality of the recording creates ambiguity.

By pitch shifting the original audio to higher or lower frequencies, the same listener can report different interpretations. The New York Times released an interactive tool on their website that changes the pitch of the recording in real-time. The interactive slider allows the recording to be played back at any pitch between 3 semitones higher (to help the listener hear "Laurel"), and 6 semitones lower (to help the listener hear "Yanny"). This change in volume of frequencies has a similar effect in the "brainstorm - green needle" auditory illusion.

See also

• List of Internet phenomena
• Malapropism
• McGurk effect
• Mondegreen
• Optical illusion
• The dress

References

1. ^ Jackson, Amanda (May 16, 2018). "Laurel or Yanny? What science has to say". CNN. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
2. ^ Kirby, Jen (May 16, 2018). "Why you hear "Laurel" or "Yanny" in that viral audio clip, explained". Vox. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
3. "Laurel" at vocabulary.com
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference History was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Matsakis, Louise (May 16, 2018). "The True History of 'Yanny' and 'Laurel'". WIRED. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
6. "laurel – Dictionary Definition". Vocabulary.com. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
7. ""Laurel Or Yanny?" Confuses The Internet". Eyerys.com. May 15, 2018. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
8. Katie Hetzel, 15 yr old Flowery Branch High Freshman interview with Francesca Amiker on 11alive.com (published to YouTube on May 18, 2018)
9. Hoggatt, Aja (May 15, 2018). "Is your favorite celeb a Yanny or a Laurel?". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
10. O'Kane, Caitlin (May 16, 2018). "Yanny vs. Laurel: What do you hear?". CBS News. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
11. Gray, Julia (May 16, 2018). "Yanny Or Laurel: Yanni And Laurel Halo Weigh In". Stereogum. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
12. "Laurel, Yanny or ... covfefe? White House joins in on debate". Associated Press. May 17, 2018. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
13. ^ Watson, Chloe (2018-05-17). "Laurel or Yanny debate: why do some people hear a different word?". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
14. "Here's why you're hearing "Yanny" – and why it's technically "Laurel"". CBS News. May 17, 2018. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
15. ^ "Yanny - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com". www.vocabulary.com. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
16. Ducharme, Jamie (May 16, 2018). "An Audiologist Explains Why You Hear 'Yanny' or 'Laurel' — Or Both". Time. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
17. Gutman, Rachel (May 15, 2018). "A Linguist Explains Why 'Laurel' Sounds Like 'Yanny'". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
18. Katz, Josh (2018-05-16). "We Made a Tool to Help You Hear Both Laurel and Yanny". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
19. https://www.digg.com/2018/brainstorm-or-green-needle%3famp=true

• 2018 in science
• Auditory illusions
• Internet memes
• Internet memes introduced in 2018
• May 2018 events