So which is it, Yanny or Laurel?
The latest internet craze is to listen to the audio and answer the burning question of whether you hear “Yanny” or “Laurel.”
I heard “Yanny”—or rather, just to show you what a weirdo I am, I actually heard “Yammy.” Close enough.
The explanation:
Computer synthesis programs can produce unnatural sounds that fall on the boundaries between the two sounds. The listener will place these chimeric sounds into one category or the other depending on the best match. Because humans have differences in their auditory function and category boundaries, some will hear ”˜Yanny,’ while others will hear ”˜Laurel.’…
“You will never confuse ”˜Yanny’ and ”˜Laurel’ when spoken by actual talkers, because they can only produce natural sounds that fall within the distinct parameter spaces of the two sounds.”…
Tinny speakers, like the ones on TV sets and laptops, tend to emphasize the higher frequencies, which brings out the “Yanny.” Older people, who have begun losing some of the higher frequencies in their hearing, are more likely to hear “laurel.”
And those older people who have begun losing some of the higher frequencies are more likely to be male than female, so my guess is that more of the older men hear “Laurel” than women do.
I’m old, male and have moderate hearing loss in one ear and mild in the other and I heard yanny, listening with cheap ear buds.
When they played it in the radio, I heard Laurel, but playing the Reddit clip, I heard “yammy.”
Also old and male with measured high-frequency hearing loss, and I hear “yanni”, without any hint of anything else, whether through my low-end-of-the-high-end stereo speakers or the eensy little one on my phone.
In case you didn’t notice this link in the Yahoo story, give it a try. It lets you adjust the frequency. In my case it turns into “laurel” when I get about two notches to the left.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/16/upshot/audio-clip-yanny-laurel-debate.html
Or rather between the first and second leftward marks.
Mac:
Yes, I clicked on all those links at the site, and I heard “Laurel” on the last couple of them.
I’m 73 with tinnitus since being in the service 50 years ago. I hear “Yaurel”
I hear both Yanny AND Laurel.
I hear Yammy, actually, like neo. FWIW, I’m a sixty year old male.
Laurel; no question.
Some folks claim that I have significant high frequency loss, but I doubt that. Certainly no more than you would expect after decades around jet engines, and such. I hear my tinnitus just fine.
Two hearing aids and difficulty with conversations in loud restaurants: Laurel.
I only hear Laurel, but Pres. DJT has retweeted the WH take, with both Laurels and Yannys:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
It ends with Trump, “I hear …”
(45 sec, listen; it’s funny)
By the way, in the tweet of the tests to others, sometimes I did hear Yanny, not my usual Laurel. Funny strange.
I’m a 64 yo male with hearing loss. Like Dennis, I hear “Yaurel”.
I’m in the older generation, but I’m hearing ‘yanny’, which is supposed to be what the young people are hearing. No clue./
Now on a recording at another source, I’m hearing ‘Laurel’. Is this just Millennials d*icking with us?
I think the dress is white and gold.
Powerline’s Week in Pictures is on the case:
https://i2.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2018/05/What-do-you-see.jpeg?w=990
And I confess this is exactly what I thought of after seeing the options for names:
https://i2.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2018/05/Laurel-and-Yianni.jpeg?w=956
PS: if the original video hadn’t primed listeners by giving only two options, what would people have spontaneously answered? Kind of like giving only the two choices for the magic dress’s colors.