![]() This can happen when certain things bias us to expect the wrong language. Just like the predictive text function on a cell phone, our brains try to guess the words being said when we’re listening to someone talk. Soramimi show that sometimes this can actually be the wrong language. However, at some point during listening, words belonging to the actual language that you’re hearing are given preference. If you don’t switch keyboards every time you switch languages, it will start to suggest, for example, Dutch words when you’re typing in English. Think of your phone’s predictive text function. Today most researchers agree that a bilingual’s languages are stored and accessed together when listening to speech. Here the Zulu in “The Circle of Life” (The Lion King) sounds like English. In this video the subtitles help create the illusion that Coldplay’s Chris Martin is actually singing in Dutch (translation: “and this makes you angry”). But how is it possible to even get the language wrong? What’s more, misheard song lyrics are very persistent illusions: once you hear them, it’s very hard to un-hear them because of the strong influence of our expectations. Unable to retrieve the intended meaning, our ears “slip” to the closest, usually more familiar, alternative. According to a group of researchers who use soramimi to study misperceptions, this is exacerbated in songs because of distorted speech and noise. This is what happens in the case of many visual illusions with ambiguous figures. Our brains have a way of trying to find sense even when there is none. But why do we mishear song lyrics and what can this tell us about how we understand speech? The name comes from a mishearing of a Michael Jackson song. In the Netherlands this is so common, there’s even a special term for English lyrics misheard as Dutch: “Mama Appelsap” 1 (mom apple juice technical term: soramimi). Lots of people misunderstand that line and many other famously misheard lyrics. ![]() When I was a kid I could’ve sworn that Alanis Morissette was mourning the loss of a cross-eyed bear in “You Oughta Know” ( instead of the original “cross I bear”). I’m not the only one. ![]() But these mishearings can actually tell us a lot about how our brains normally understand speech. Song lyrics are often misheard and can be a lot of fun. ![]()
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