The man who recorded Yanny or Laurel reveals what he REALLY said

Thank goodness for that

Yanny | Laurel

by Emma Dodds |
Updated on

The Yanny or Laurel debate took pretty much the entire world by storm last week as the voice clip did the rounds on the internet. Half of the listeners were absolutely convinced that the mysterious voice was saying Yanny, whilst the other half were utterly sure it was Laurel.

Well. We finally have our answer everyone, as the voice behind the clip has been found...

It's LAUREL!

Broadway actor and singer Jay Aubrey Jones first recorded the soundbite back in 2007, speaking the word "laurel" for Vocabulary.com.

And even though Team Yanny-ers will be sat reading this in disbelief, they can be assured that Jay knows what he's talking about - after all, he's actually trained in pronunciation.

Speaking to Time, Jay revealed that he's been "amused no end" by the furore around his voice, saying, "I recorded my batch of words and I thought that was that."

Jay Aubrey Jones
©Jay Aubrey Jones © Facebook

He went on, "I thought, well, it couldn't be that huge. Then I heard the recording again online and I realised what a brouhaha this whole thing was."

However, even HE can hear the word Yanny at some points, "More often than not, I hear laurel. I can hear a slight trace of yanny."

One smarty pants on Twitter was able to explain why people were hearing different things. Twitter user Dylan Bennett explained that it was all to do with frequencies, tweeting, 'Okay, you're not crazy. If you can hear high freqs, you probably hear "yanny", but you might hear "laurel".

'If you can't hear high freqs, you probably hear laurel. Here's what it sounds like without high/low freqs.'

So there you have it!

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