LONDON: Arab Twitter users have waded into a divisive debate over an audio “illusion” that has taken the Internet by storm.
The web is divided over whether a computer-generated voice, which first emerged on Reddit, is saying “laurel” or “yanny” — resulting in some heated debates in cafes and offices across the world.
The clip has proved as divisive as a 2015 image of a dress, which some were convinced was blue and black, and others were adamant was white and gold.
Some Twitter users have now added their own dimension to the “laurel or yanny” debate, likening the latter word to the Arabic “ya3ni.”
“Ya3ni” is a common word in colloquial Arabic and means “in other words/this means” and is also used as the urban English equivalent of “like”.
One Arab Twitter commented on the audio clip by saying it sounds like Lloyd Blankfein — the chief executive of Goldman Sachs — “trying to speak Arabic.”
@BBCNews #Yanny ? It sounds like Lloyd Blankfein trying to speak Arabic. Spelt phonetically ‘Yarni’ often pronounced ‘Yanny’ in American English Vernacular is a sheepish reply meaning ‘you know.’ As in ‘well... you know.’ The recording made it sound a bit like ‘Yammy.’ @FCOtravel
— Jassim Al-Kanani (@Jassimalkanani) May 16, 2018
Another user said “all my Arabic friends hear yanny. I hear laurel,” suggesting that her friends hear “yanny” because they hear the Arabic word “ya3ni” so often.
All my Arabic friends hear Yanny. I hear Laurel.
Hmm.— Foram Divrania (@cluelessforam) May 16, 2018
Another Twitter user who is married to an Egyptian added weight to this theory by asking, “Is it because I say yanni so much being married to an Egyptian and speaking broken Arabic half the day that I am insisting on yanny?”
The resemblance between the two words was also highlighted by a Twitter user’s father, who asked “yanny like the Arabic word?” when his daughter asked him whether he could hear “yanny” or “laurel” when the clip was played.
The “3” in “Ya3ni” is sometimes used to represent the Arabic letter “ain” when written in Latin script.
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