It’s the audio clip that divided the internet – with everyone from US President Donald Trump to Ellen Degeneres weighing in on what they were hearing.
And the voice behind the Yanny/Laurel internet meme has once again confirmed what word he originally uttered.
Appearing on Sunrise on Wednesday, Jay Aubrey Jones was happy to divulge the answer to the question that has kept colleagues, friends and family arguing for weeks.
Mystery solved! The voice behind the Yanny/Laurel internet meme has finally revealed what word he originally uttered on Wednesday’s Sunrise.
‘The big question – drum roll please.,’ host David Koch said in anticipation. What were you saying? Laurel or Yanny.’
‘I was saying Laurel,’ came Jay’s succinct response.
Wanting to confirm the claim, David and co-host Samantha Armytage asked Jay to repeat ‘Laurel’ three times – which he obliged.
Bated breath: ‘The big question – drum roll please.,’ host David Koch said in anticipation. What were you saying? Laurel or Yanny.’
Jay went on to explain that the reason people were hearing ‘Yanny’ was due to the quality of their listening device, however he still seemed stumped as to an answer for why.
‘Depending on the settings of your listening device, if you hear more of a bass sound, you’ll hear “Laurel,'” Jay explained. ‘As you get more toward the treble, stripping away the bass sound, for some reason – passing all reason – some people will hear “Yanny.”‘
Jay went on to explain that the original clip was recorded back in 2007 when he was recording reference pronunciations for the website vocabulary.com.
Audiophile: Jay went on to explain that the reason that people were hearing ‘Yanni’ was due to the quality of their listening device, however he still seemed stumped as to an answer for why
He said that he had completely forgotten about the recording until he heard it on television earlier this month, however he didn’t immediately recognise it as his voice.
‘On May 16th, I’m getting ready to go to work and I have a television show on in the background and this ‘Laurel/Yanny business came up and I didn’t recognise my own voice,’ Jay confessed.
He continued: I didn’t hear about it really until I was at my temp job and then I got a text from Mark Tinkler, who is the executive producer of vocabulary.com, and he says to me “you do realise it’s your voice behind this don’t you?” and I was completely floored.’
Technical: Depending on the settings of your listening device, if you hear more of a bass sound, you’ll hear “Laurel,'” Jay explained. ‘As you get more toward the treble, stripping away the bass sound, for some reason – passing all reason – some people will hear “Yanny.”‘
The meme captured the imagination of the world when it surfaced earlier this month.
Talk show queen Ellen DeGeneres tweeted: ‘Literally everything at my show just stopped to see if people hear Laurel or Yanny. I hear Laurel.’
US President Donald trump even weighed in his opinion in a clip posted by The White House to Twitter.
‘I hear covfefe,’Donald joked in reference to a cryptic tweet he posted in May 2017 that featured the made-up word.
Debate: The meme captured the imagination of the world when it surfaced earlier this month with the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and US President Donald Trump weighing in