"Yanny" OR "Laurel"

[Jezza]

It's been dividing the internet, but which word do you hear in the recording?

I only hear "Laurel".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM38OFDKU20

[Mugwump]

They’re pulling a leg. It says Laurel.

[K]

Aaghh... Nickster GroupThink (GroupHear?)...

[David]

Once you’ve heard each, I find it’s easy to switch between them in your head (for those struggling to hear ‘yanny’, imagine the word said in a high-pitched American accent, kind of like ‘yeah-knee’). It’s certainly a curious phonetic phenomenon!

[K]

But is "Yanny" even a word? Still interesting, but inelegant if in order to make it work they had to use a made-up word.

[David]

I think the fact that it ‘works’ at all is the most fascinating thing. I don’t know what other phonetic combinations would achieve this effect.

The thing that stumps me is this: is it something special about the recording, or if I go out myself and say ‘Yanny’ to people just the way I hear it, will some people actually hear ‘Laurel’? And how the hell does that work?

[K]

https://twitter.com/LoganPaul/status/996637482325233664

Okay, Laurelites. Does the above clip make you switch?

That was referenced in [SPOILER ALERT]
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-44136799
whose explanation (quoted from a longer one in The Verge) makes it seem like you might be able to do it with any words...

[Bucks5]

I have heard both depending on when and where.

I first heard it on the car radio as Laurel, on my ipad as both Yanny and Laurel (same source, different time), and I heard it as Yanny this time on my laptop.

[think positive]

My daughter googled it and apparently you hear Yanny if you have younger ears.

She played it to me on her phone and I can hear both, I was trying to work out which is correct, and well that’s how I hear! When I have a conversation with someone and they are fast talkers or lazy talkers, ie they drop letters or don’t speak each word clearly, my hearing lags while I try to work out what they are saying. So welcome to my world!

When I talk with Jezza at the footy, I guess by now he slows down for me without realising it, but he speaks well and clearly and I rarely have to say huh!

I still don’t know which is correct, and if it was played to me without knowing the word I’d be interested to see what I came up with.

Now try this one, it’s freaky and it works, play them in order then go back and play the first one again, there is no tricks here!

https://youtu.be/f_R9_xdhuNw

And the why

https://youtu.be/yDiXQl7grPQ

My hearing problem is a decibel level thing, I’ve lost normal speaking pitch, yes very handy! The first one I hear Yanny, and the second where apparently most people here Laurel, I was trying to decide which one it was.

[David]

Another variant:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=76amLQK8N7E

[Skids]

I hear Yammy.

And it that one David, I hear; Brainstorm or Green storm.

[Skids]

I heard Laurel on the Ellen show

[K]

[think positive]

In the last link I posted they do something like that

[K]

In that link, it seems they're shifting the frequency (by playing the tape faster or slower). With a normal sound system, we can only boost the volume of certain frequencies. But kids like really whacking up the bass (so the building shakes and all the neighbours are aggrieved), so a kid-centric sound system should do the trick.