koan earEnglish

Which sounds can everyone tell apart?

We are building a new computer system from the ground up, made to be usable by everyone. Every thing in it is named by a long number, and we want people to be able to say those names out loud, in any language. For that we need an alphabet of sounds that people everywhere can tell apart. This short test finds out which sounds those are. If you help, you can be credited by name or stay anonymous, and everything we learn is published. The longer story.

You will hear one short made-up word at a time, spoken by your browser, and pick which of two spellings you heard. There are 28 of them; it takes two to three minutes. Headphones help.

All three questions are optional. We collect nothing else about you: no IP address, no account, no tracking. Whatever you type in these boxes is published with the results, without your name.

Which did you hear?

On a keyboard, press 1 or 2 to answer and R to hear it again. If you honestly cannot tell, pick either one: that is exactly what we want to measure.

Done, thank you.
01 · how your ear did

Your score next to everyone else's

SoundsYouEveryoneYour first language

“Right” means you picked the spelling of the sound that was actually played. You only heard each pair twice, so treat your own column as a rough hint. The other columns fill in as more people take the test.

02 · your own koan

A name you could say out loud, made just now in your browser

In the system we are building, every thing is named by a long number. Nobody can say a long number, so each one also gets a koan: a short spoken name made of simple syllables. Below is a fresh random number, made on your device and never sent anywhere, with its koan in each of the two sets of syllables we are choosing between.

set A (a consonant + a, e, i or u + an optional “ng”)
set B (a consonant + a, o, i or u + an optional “n”)

Saying it either way changes nothing. Both spoken names stand for the same long number; the syllables are only a way of saying it, like reading a phone number aloud in English or in Spanish.

03 · credit

Would you like to be named?

People who choose a name appear on the credits page. People who stay anonymous are counted but never named. Either way, your name is never attached to your answers in the published data.

04 · Share

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Help us hear more languages. Send the test to someone who speaks one you don't. The link carries only the page and its language, nothing about you.

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