First of all, the clip is, according to Sanker “not prototypical” of either laurel or yanny. It’s somewhere in the middle. Sanker said the l/y discrepancy might come from the fact that the sound there isn’t velarized—the speaker’s tongue isn’t touching the back of their soft palate (the velum), as many American English speakers do when they say an l. The middle consonant is definitely not an n, Sanker said, but you might hear one because the vowel in front of it sounds particularly nasal. People who hear laurel are hearing a syllabic l in the second syllable, which has some similarities to the vowel sound at the end of yanny. Both are sonorants—you could go on singing them until you run out of air, as opposed to an obstruent like p or t.
For the record, all the old ears in our household hear “Laurel” and all the young ears hear “Yanni”.
And although there are exceptions, that’s apparently pretty standard due to the way that people lose the ability to hear higher frequencies as they age.
But technology to the rescue – you can apparently pitch shift to hear the word you’re missing!
Ok, so if you pitch-shift it you can hear different things:
We didn’t get a fire ban until the end of summer last year.
But it’s been crazy dry the last couple years so here we go right at the start of the camping season (and yes, the regional park we’re booked into won’t escape without a fire ban either until some rain comes.) 🙁
Initially we weren’t drawn for a seasonal site at Nickle and were only going to be able to camp down there for July and August on monthly bookings.
But this past weekend, we got great news that a seasonal spot had opened up so now we’ll be able to move in to the park in time for the upcoming May long weekend!
Kudos to my mother-in-law who “rang the bell” earlier this week after completing seven weeks of radiation and chemo therapy for cancer.
Also have to give special recognition to my wife and my father-in-law who went above and beyond with support through this difficult time – from miles on the road to 6am text messages.
It makes me excited for RPL Father’s Day video next month where various dads who work for the system try not to get emotional while reading passages from “Fight Club” to our children. 😉
Just kidding – this video is great and I know I can’t get through reading this story to my kids without tearing up so kudos to all my co-workers who participated!
We’ve been out to Over The Hill Orchards once before for a Mother’s Day Brunch event but their restaurant area has undergone significant (and breathtaking) renovations since then.
