When it Comes to Your Hearing, Small Changes Make a Big Difference
Article by Mitch Rockwell
Phoneme: The smallest change that can be made to a word to change its meaning. Oronym: A word or phrase that sounds similar to another word or phrase but has a different meaning.
When it comes to hearing issues, small changes can make a big difference. If you have trouble hearing you may be a culprit of creating meaning from the wrong interpretation of what was said. This is fairly common when it comes to listening to one-on-one conversations, groups of people and especial when there is background noise. When we can’t truly hear what the person or persons are saying, our mind fills in the blanks with what seems to fit best.
These misheard words are called Oronyms. When we mishear words our brain employs them, particularly with those who have trouble hearing. Unlike homonyms where the words sound the same with different spelling (e.g. there, their) there is a specific region of the brain called the angular gyrus that uses previous knowledge to fill in gaps with predictable words. If you are missing whole phrases or even just the first or last syllable of a word, this is the section of the brain that completes the sentence for you without you consciously having to employ this method. If you hear the waiter say the fish of the day is “sal,” your brain will fill in the missing “mon.”
As hearing loss progresses we start to lose the ability to distinguish between different phonemes where a small change makes a big difference in our interpretation of the words we are hearing. When this happens the angular gyrus will fill in these gaps with incorrect information causing words and sentences to be misunderstood.
Take songs like Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising,” where we hear “Don’t come around tonight, it’s bound to take all night. There’s a bathroom on the right” but the lyrics are actually “Don’t go around tonight, well it’s bound to take your life. There’s a bad moon on the rise.” Or Queen’s operatic hit “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The lyrics can be heard as “Saving his life from this warm sausage tea,” however the lyrics really are “Spare him his life from this monstrosity.”.
While these are anecdotal and humorous examples they do flow over into real-life situations. With hearing loss missing these small phonemes can make a big difference in the way we interpret speech and understanding. Hearing loss is something that we will all experience, whether it’s noise-induced or just due to the normal aging process. A prescribed, professionally fit and programmed, high-quality hearing device can help bring these small changes in words (phonemes) clearer while removing confusion (oronyms) and make everyday conversation in quiet and noisy environments easier and more enjoyable.
