The origin behind Laurel and Yanny: the most popular phenomenon on the Internet this week

Have you chosen your side? Laurel or Yanny?

If you are not aware of this emerging (but hugely popular) Internet phenomenon, read our article.

So did you hear Laurel or Yanny? If your answer is Laurel, technically speaking, you're right. But what is the story behind this "cleverly synthesized" recording? Here is what you want to know.

Emerging Internet phenomenon Yanny and Laurel.

The origin of the recording is from the Vocabulary.com website, which is derived from the pronunciation of the word "laurel" , which means the laurel wreath, the first team that is often used as a symbol of victory. This recording began to spread strongly from Reddit, in the blackmagicf ** kery section, the section that posted bizarre things that were hard to explain, seemed to be caused by magic. YouTuber Chloe Feldman posted it on Twitter and Yanny - Laurel's spread was getting stronger and stronger.

But the first discoverer was Katie Hetzel, a newcomer at Flowery Branch High School, Georgia. On May 11, while searching for words to serve the literary lesson, I found the word "Laurel". Groping on Vocabulary.com and hearing how "laurel" sounds, I was startled when I heard "yanny" sound.

If your answer is Laurel, technically speaking, you're right.

"I asked some friends in my class and all received different results," said Hetzel. I posted my findings on Instagram and after a while, an upperclassman posted this recording of Interactive's Story of Instagram, asking people to see what they heard.

"She is the one who recorded it and posted it on Instagram and I made it again and posted it again , " said Castro. "Katie and I talked to each other and agreed that we both have a good chance of finding this good thing." Reddit's user, RolandCamry, Castro's friend, said he took the video from Castro's Instagram and posted it on Reddit.

An opera singer in New York recorded it in December 2007.

And that is the famous journey of Yanny - Laurel. But who is the voice behind the recording? It is not that the sound track was created with a computer, an opera singer in New York recorded it in December 2007.

"It is a good story, he is a possible character, is a member of the team participating in the musical performance CATS at the Broadway stage , " Marc Tinkler, CTO and co-founder of Vocabulary. com said. When this site is newly established, its creators want individuals to pronounce clearly, coherently and in accordance with world-class standards.

"Basically, we hire some opera singers to record 200,000 words , " Tinkler said. He did not want to reveal the identity of these opera singers, because he did not know if those individuals were comfortable with becoming the focus of the online community. According to Tinkler, it is the personal recording of "laurel" that helped Vocabulary record 36,000 more words. He added that his favorite pronunciation coming from the opera singer's mouth is the word "audacity".

The higher the frequency of sounds, the more people will hear from Yanny, the lower will be from Laurel.

And Mr. Tinkler, like many others, somehow understands two completely different words. It is very likely that the pronunciation of these words is individual, not combined with any complete sentences, so it is unclear if there is no context.

Fortunately, there have been reasonable explanations from researchers, otherwise Internet wars between Laurel and Yanny factions will occur. This recording is just like a visual trick, but it is for ears. Besides, the recording is also very noisy - many noise and many different frequencies, so determining exactly what it says will make it difficult for listeners.

Besides, the higher the frequency of sounds, the more people will hear from Yanny, the lower will be from Laurel. What you hear is because your brain will decide by focusing on high or low frequencies.

That's it, Yanny - Laurel's famous story and the voice behind that recording are as above. But it is likely that you have not found a "right path" for yourself. The Internet is the same, people still argue that it is "crazy" or "yan-ni".