--- title: Yanny vs. Laurel: Voice Actor Pronounces Other Words description: The voice actor behind the "Yanny vs. Laurel" debate tearing apart the internet recorded lots of other word pronunciations too. canonical: https://time.com/5282651/yanny-laurel-sound-voice/ author: Katy Steinmetz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-18T19:23:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:52:57.063Z og:title: Listen to the Voice Behind the Yanny-Laurel Firestorm Pronounce Other Words og:description: Jay Aubrey Jones is the voice behind the debate tearing the internet apart og:url: https://time.com/5282651/yanny-laurel-sound-voice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Listen to the Voice Behind the Yanny-Laurel Firestorm Pronounce Other Words twitter:description: Jay Aubrey Jones is the voice behind the debate tearing the internet apart twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Listen to the Voice Behind the Yanny-Laurel Firestorm Pronounce Other Words by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) and [David Johnson](https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/) May 18, 2018 7:23 PM UTC by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) and [David Johnson](https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/) May 18, 2018 7:23 PM UTC If you’re sick of hearing the viral audio clip of the word “laurel” (which has been making the rounds [because many people bizarrely hear “yanny” instead](http://time.com/5278817/yanny-or-laurel-audio-clip-debate/)), then it may be time to try some other sounds. The clip, which spread via social media, was [originally recorded almost a decade ago](http://time.com/5281287/jay-aubrey-jones-laurel-yanny-voice/) by an actor-singer named Jay Aubrey Jones, who was working on a project for [Vocabulary.com](https://www.vocabulary.com/) at the time. The word-learning site hired trained vocalists to utter words for pronunciation recordings that are still in use on the site. And while Jones might have become meme-famous for his baritone intonation of “laurel,” he recorded some 36,000 other words as well. Click on the speaker icon beside each word above to hear Jones’ rendition. Click on the word itself to see definitions and context via Vocabulary.com. While memes like this can seem like superficial distractions, they are also moments of learning, says Marc Tinkler, chief technology officer for Vocabulary.com. He provided TIME with this selection of other words uttered by Jones’ dulcet voice, with the hopes that the Great Laurel-or-Yanny Debate of 2018 will at least leave us with more robust lexicons. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5282651/yanny-laurel-sound-voice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5282651/yanny-laurel-sound-voice/"},"headline":"Listen to the Voice Behind the Yanny-Laurel Firestorm Pronounce Other Words","datePublished":"2018-05-18T19:23:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:52:57.063Z","description":"Jay Aubrey Jones is the voice behind the debate tearing the internet apart","url":"https://time.com/5282651/yanny-laurel-sound-voice/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","interactive studios"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Steinmetz","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"David Johnson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5282651/yanny-laurel-sound-voice/","name":"Listen to the Voice Behind the Yanny-Laurel Firestorm Pronounce Other Words"}}]}] ```