Many of you may fondly recall the original Age of Empires game, and the hilarious sounds the priest unit made while attempting to convert enemy units.
If not, ten minutes worth are contained in this video:
It seems that most people hear this sound as "wololo" - I do not. Instead I hear it as more like "nyenyenyeh" or something similar, and I've come across only a few people that agree.
I find this deeply disturbing. How do you hear this sound?
Poll: Priest conversion sound? (Vote): Wololo (Vote): Other (Please specify)
Haha, see to me I have no idea how people are hearing a "w" or an "l".
Someone on the youtube comments said it sounded like "een een eee" which is closer to mine, and a friend found someone on heavengames who thought it sounded like "nimeneh". All of my siblings also agree.
I wonder if it's like 6-n-propylthiouracil where a small % of the population has the genes to taste it (it tastes really bitter) while the rest taste nothing - the small % are incidentally the broccoli haters. Haha.
On September 12 2009 10:03 Freyr wrote: Ugh, this is so upsetting. Thanks for the shin ramyun blog by the way, it inspired me to try your egg method today.
haha glad you liked it ^^ more coming soon just pretty busy~ stupid work and college T_T
Both wololoo and nyenyenyeh are there. If I wanted to imagine the first one I can hear it as such and if I want to imagine the second I'll hear the second. My guess is that it all comes down to how you hear the first part. Culture and the sounds your family make around you as well as the life experiences you've gone through and the way you learned speech all play a part in how you hear this. I personally hear it wololoo if I don't try too much, but maybe that's because my cousin used to imitate the priest's sound like that. I think it the voiceactor had to say one thing and not the other so in the end there has to be one answer and most likely it is wolooloo, but the way it is recorded in confuses you into thinking that "ne" and "ye" exist, perhaps when saying wo and then lo, the transition between these two sounds creates the perception that there's ne and ye? Maybe because wo is broad while lo is narrow? Perhaps the contrast between w and l is similar to the one between n and y?
I find this topic interesting! It made me think of something new!
Just listening to a few seconds of that brings back angry childhood memories. Not sure if it was to do with religious upbringing or the simple fact that the unit has always pissed me off and sounded like a twat.
On September 12 2009 10:10 bahaa wrote: My answer:
Both wololoo and nyenyenyeh are there. If I wanted to imagine the first one I can hear it as such and if I want to imagine the second I'll hear the second. My guess is that it all comes down to how you hear the first part. Culture and the sounds your family make around you as well as the life experiences you've gone through and the way you learned speech all play a part in how you hear this. I personally hear it wololoo if I don't try too much, but maybe that's because my cousin used to imitate the priest's sound like that. I think it the voiceactor had to say one thing and not the other so in the end there has to be one answer and most likely it is wolooloo, but the way it is recorded in confuses you into thinking that "ne" and "ye" exist, perhaps when saying wo and then lo, the transition between these two sounds creates the perception that there's ne and ye? Maybe because wo is broad while lo is narrow? Perhaps the contrast between w and l is similar to the one between n and y?
I find this topic interesting! It made me think of something new!
Hey - yeah your explanation seems to be the most likely, as my siblings all hear it the same way. It is interesting though, that I have come across people (outside of family and friends) who seem to hear it in a similar manner. Were you the second that voted "other"?
It does seem kind of silly, but I agree it would be really interesting to get to the bottom of this.
To the poster who suggested a technical issue: I have heard this sound through a number of different computers over the years, all with different sound systems (both my own and those of others), so the issue may be psychological or neurological.
Thanks for the input so far everyone. If nothing else I hope this has brought back some (hopefully positive) memories.
I have never played empire earth. Are you saying the sound in the posted video contains the sound from empire earth?
I am explaining that I hear this "wololo" as "nyenyenyeh" and I'm searching for an explanation as well as other people who hear it the same way.
Could you post a link to the empire earth sound? Maybe I will hear that one as "wololo", haha.
this is totally sick, but i'm sure if you find someone saying "nyenyenyeh" you will hear wololo! can't you just try harder? lol i just can't understand this for shit since he's clearly saying wololo :p
I have never played empire earth. Are you saying the sound in the posted video contains the sound from empire earth?
I am explaining that I hear this "wololo" as "nyenyenyeh" and I'm searching for an explanation as well as other people who hear it the same way.
Could you post a link to the empire earth sound? Maybe I will hear that one as "wololo", haha.
this is totally sick, but i'm sure if you find someone saying "nyenyenyeh" you will hear wololo! can't you just try harder? lol i just can't understand this for shit since he's clearly saying wololo :p
I'm trying pretty hard - I'm currently messing with the file in audacity too, just to see if I can find the wololo within...
Also - I seem to hear the rest of the priest sounds like everyone else does, and all the rest of the game sounds that have come up. (You know, 'cause aoe sounds tend to come up in conversation)
On September 12 2009 12:24 alffla wrote: how HOW??? i listned to it more times
impossible how "Wo" can sound like "Nyeh"
its like ...if "Wo" was english "Nyeh" would be russian. sadfADSFADS
I am just as mystified as you. What I hear is NOTHING like wololo. It's nasal and not very distinct, "nyeh" is not the only way I'd describe it.
Some guy on the youtube comments said it sounded like "een een eee" which I could imagine describing it as also, where everything is heavily nasal. Pitchwise it starts at about an E and drops the minor third to a G on the last syllable.
On September 12 2009 12:35 SwEEt[TearS] wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3upCQ4ED84o plays it backward (pretty freaking random video tbh) backwards it sounds like ayoyoyou wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwtf
The ayoyoyou is not the same sound backward - it is another sound the priest makes. I hear that one just like everyone else.
These are both sounds the priest makes when 'converting' enemy units (when he has finished casting the unit becomes yours - exactly the same as the DAs mindcontrol). Thus the jokes about MJ "switching sides" and becoming white etc. Whether or not it is funny is another matter.
On September 12 2009 12:35 SwEEt[TearS] wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3upCQ4ED84o plays it backward (pretty freaking random video tbh) backwards it sounds like ayoyoyou wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwtf
The ayoyoyou is not the same sound backward - it is another sound the priest makes. I hear that one just like everyone else.
These are both sounds the priest makes when 'converting' enemy units (when he has finished casting the unit becomes yours - exactly the same as the DAs mindcontrol). Thus the jokes about MJ "switching sides" and becoming white etc. Whether or not it is funny is another matter.
LOOOOOOOOOL ok if u acutally said "wololo" that wold've just been ilke. ...surreal lol. like your ears hear totalyl differently. anyway the way you said it soudns the same as wololo i mean like .. the pitch and tone or awhtever but
im trying so hard to hear it as nyehnyehnyeh..... but i cant
however, the closest i've come to hearing wololo as nyeh is at the last "loooooooh" where theres some kind of weird sound distortion and it soudns a bit like erreeeeeeeeeeeeehh.
like the 'ereeehhh/nyehhhhh' is kind of a raspy whispery noise that starts really showing from halfway through 'loohhh'
I'd be really curious to hear a recording by someone who hears it as 'wololo'.
It would also be cool to see a phonological interpretation of it, if there happen to be any linguist hanging about. I'm assuming Cunninglinguist did not choose his name for literal reasons...
The mp3 you put up doesn't sound like nyehnyehnyeh to me. Sounds like the start doesn't have a hard sound to it at all, nothing like an 'n'. So it sounds more like yehnyehnyeh. With the softer sound at the beginning it's easy to hear it closer to a 'w', and in the original youtube it's quite close to a 'w' sound but I could hear it more like an 'ah' or some other softer sound like in the mp3.
Further, once the 'n' and 'L' sound are filtered and blurred like in these recordings it's pretty easy to hear it either way. And for the 'yeh' part of nyeh, that's pretty easy to hear as just 'neh', and 'eh' and 'oh' are pretty close once blurred and altered like in these clips.
This all makes sense, and I would understand if there were more interpretations - it is just bewildering to me that the overwhelming majority of people hear "wololo".
I also still don't hear anything approaching a w or L :S
Though, I seem to remember the game having an alternate sound that also got played some of the time, so it could be that the "nyehnyehnyeh" comes from that.
On September 13 2009 00:36 Draconizard wrote: How do you communicate on a daily basis if you can hear neither a "W" nor an "L" in that?
Plenty of people seem to be hearing wonono so I guess it's not as clear cut as you seem to think.
This is the only example of this phenomenon, which is why it is so interesting to me - especially since there are others who also hear it like I do. Unfortunately no one on this forum either hears it like I do or has the expertise to be able to offer a technical explanation.
Maybe you guys are just all against me.
Incidentally, I heard a recording of someone (who heard it as wololo) imitating it - it sounded like wololo. It's only the original that sounds nothing like wololo to me.
neeneenee, nyeenenyeeeh, nyenyenyeh, why cant i hear WOLOLO like everyone else? It sounds like what a parent would say to the baby teasing him/her like or kids teasing each other like neeneenee... just like in America they say "Neener Neener Neener" i guess hearing that growing up forces me to hear it this way, i have to try VERY hard to even hear something even close to wololo, the best i can force myself to hear after playing for 10 minutes is neeneno!!!!!!!!!!!! this has been in my head since 2000 when i first played the game!
here is a baby learning to talk and waying nenene, it sounds different then what i hear, but the words shes saying is what i hear, just a grown up teasing voice, not the thick WOLOLO wrestler voice that i imagine it should be
and here is another of an older kid..............
PS: i just realized both videos are in brazil, i grew up as a kid in brazil and went to US at the age of 10 for 20 years
I used to do a fuckton of guitar/drum tabs for technical death metal songs, and other generally hard to decipher music. One thing I found out eventually is, the more time you spend listening to a part, the more you're going to doubt how accurate you are hearing it. It's a bit hard to explain for someone who's never tabbed but, you hear ''notes that aren't there'', because every not has an infinite amount of natural harmonics making the sound what it is, and you can start to hear the ones that are closest to what the REAL note is.
Another example would be a long, fast palm muted notes sequence. Since the notes are muted, and most likely pretty low in frequency, your brain will have a hard time hearing the note pattern. It's very easy to convince yourself that what you hear is correct, even if it is wrong, and vice versa.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, you can make your brain hear what it wants, to a certain extent.
PS: personally I consider myself to have exceptional hearing (sooo relative, but whatever!), and I hear wololo
PS2: why did the poster above me get banned? Over-enthusiasm gets you banned now? Or i'm missing something...
How?! Just how in the world is it possible to hear wololo? There is no "w" or "L" or "o" sound in the slightest!! O.o
No matter how much I listen to it the only thing I can hear is "nee nee neeeeeeee" or "mee mee meeeeeee" I have always heard it like this ever since I played the game when I was like 8 years old.
The full sound (vid in OP is only the "nee nee neeeee" part) being "aiiiyoyoyoyo nee nee neeeeeeee"
Everyone does hear the other part as aiiyoyoyoyo at least...... right?!
There is no "Wololo" There is no L sound at all. Also there is no 3x O sound, but clearly there is a dominant E/A sound.
It's Nenene. It always annoyed me seing "wololo" on youtube and I asked me where the hell is "wololo". he clearly says "NENENOA"or as the poster says nyenyenyeh U people just say "wololo" because that was the first thing you read, lmao.
I also find it "deeply disturbing" as the poster says, how so many people can be that stupid. People who cannot judge sound, should not have the right to vote here.
warned for what? That everyone else here but me and a few others are lacking of the ability to listen? I repeat,there is no O and no L sound as in (wOLOLo) It's a high nasal nenene sound or nenenoa. Though I find turning the E to an O sound more disturbing than turning the N into an L, lol. Yes this gets me mad, but not irritated, as the poster. I have great confidence in my senses and views. The whole world could disagree with me and I still know I am right, lol. How did I find my way here? I found it so "deeply disturbing" that I googled if someone else heard it similar like me. I don't know what is more disturbing though the incompetence of people hearing something so wrong or the administration here who gave me a warning for nothing. I wish some of these fools who claim it's a "wololo" sound, upload their own spoken version of "wololo". Then I at least have something to laugh at =D
It's obviously, Ni ni niiiie, with first of all a cind of almost closed mouth to bring about the blurriness I guess or Heavy distortion from some program. Alternatively the end niie backwards at the same time. I have no clue either how some people can hear "w" or an "O" in there other then transcribing the blurred noice/distortion as an w or o. I bet we would have to get a straight answer from the once who recorded it before this is settled haha.