Guess this word - Audio clip

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Kooyeen

#476239 Tue, 12 Feb 08 09:57 PM

Hi,

This is something that has always bothered me... I know what this word is supposed to be, but I'd like to know what the others hear. When I have some opinions, you'll get the truth.

I am going to post a couple of links to the audio clips of a word. You have to guess the word, or tell me what you hear anyway. I hope you can hear them clearly, they are very short (a couple of seconds). The links are direct links to the mp3 files. I hope they are ok now, because this is the second time I've posted... Last time the file hosting service messed up in some way, and the links didn't point to my files.

I took them from longer clips, so I had to isolate the word the best way I could... The second is probably clearer, but I decided to include the first too. Here they are:

[link]

Thanks.

Kooyeen

Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005

Italy

Senior Member (4,073)

If you don't have a sense of humor already, it's about time you buy one.

Mister Micawber

#476328 Wed, 13 Feb 08 06:40 AM

It's too short to be any word, definitively. If I have to guess, it's 'YES'.

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (22,710)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Learner100

#476407 Wed, 13 Feb 08 11:15 AM

'ASK'?

Learner100

Joined on Thu, Feb 7 2008

New Member (08)

Francesca

#476408 Wed, 13 Feb 08 11:20 AM

I'm afraid that I can't write what I understood because of the censorship Big Smile

Anyway, joking apart, they sound more like "yes", as MisterMicawber said, than "ask" to my Italian ears. Don't you have a longer record of them? Thinking

Francesca

Joined on Tue, Oct 11 2005

Grand Duchy of Tuscany

Contributing Member (1,627)

Kooyeen

#476617 Wed, 13 Feb 08 09:26 PM

Francesca
I'm afraid that I can't write what I understood because of the censorship

Yes, that's what I was expecting the others to hear. I do hear that, and that's why this is bothering me. I think you can hear the sounds a little bit more clearly if you use headphones instead of the speakers... But anyway, MM heard "yes" but... are you Californian? I think you are, if I'm not mistaken. And I feel this stuff has to do with California English.
I have the longer clips that I took those "swear words" from. Maybe I should upload them... But I wanted people to listen to them without a context first, just to see what they understand. See you later.

Kooyeen

#476967 Thu, 14 Feb 08 06:46 PM

Ok, since no one answered, I am going to give you the context... I included a third one that sounds really weird to me. Anyway, the truth is that the word you were suposed to understand was "ass", and what's giving me trouble is the fact that it seems to me correspondents on KCBS (San Francisco) say K-C-B-Ass. That vowel is too shifted to sound like an E to all Americans. I heard that shift is part of the California Vowel Shift but... Anyway, here you go:

[link]
[link]
[link]

Kooyeen

Vowels

Francesca

#479022 Tue, 19 Feb 08 09:00 PM

I've finally remembered to listen to your files Kooyeen (sorry Embarrassed

)

wow the third guy really pronounces a weird S Surprise

Francesca

Kooyeen

#479936 Thu, 21 Feb 08 06:54 PM

Yeah, I don't know what's wrong with the third, I guess it's a rare event, lol. But I hear the S pronounced like in the first and the second very often, and it sounds too shifted towards the "a" as in "cat" to me... So I hear K-C-B-Ass. Maybe people from California or around that area (S.Francisco) are used to that, but what about the rest of Americans?

Kooyeen