We are given an audio file with words/phrases overlaid in two voices. There are 35 pairs, one each second. These pairs clue a word that goes after the low voice and before the high voice in one of two ways: semantically or as a prefix/suffix. The pairs in the audio file are alphabetized by the middle word.
| low voice | middle word | high voice |
|---|---|---|
| nickel | BACK | fire |
| flour | BATTER | cake |
| tongue | BEAK | rhamphotheca |
| chaser | BEATER | keeper |
| buzzard | BOGEY | par |
| full price | BOGO | free |
| lions | DEN | mark |
| harvey | DENT | corn |
| summer | FALL | winter |
| fee | FI | fo |
| ten | JACK | queen |
| esther | JOB | psalms |
| knock knock | JOKE | around |
| shin | KNEE | thigh |
| I don't | KNOW | it-all |
| former | LATTER* | day saints |
| stage | LEFT | overs |
| ash wednesday | LENT | easter |
| fork | LIFT | off |
| lion | LIGER | tiger |
| high | LIGHTER | fluid |
| singleton | LIST | table |
| sec | MIN | hour |
| hand | MITT | baseball |
| castle | MOAT | invaders |
| lymph | NODE | js |
| grace | NOTE | book |
| short | TALL | grande |
| william | TELL | tale |
| nine | TEN | eleven |
| lose | TIE | win |
| mistle | TOE | nail |
| sara | TOGA | party |
| ghana | TOGO | benin |
| vinyasa | YOGA | mat |
*LATTER is unique in that the preceding word (former) acts sematically while the succeeding phrase (day saints) acts as a compound. Despite this, both sides are some of the more obvious connections in this puzzle and so we decided this was acceptable
A lot of these words sound similar. In fact, we can form 7 set of phoneme ladders where one sound changes to another sound between each consecutive pair of words. In each ladder, if we look at the added sounds, they will form a valid word in one of the two directions.
| Extracted word from added sounds | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEAK | BACK | JACK | JOKE | JOB | |
| AH | J | OE | B | --- | |
| EE | B | AH | K | CABBY | |
| BEATER | BATTER | LATTER | LIGHTER | LIGER | |
| AH | L | AI | G | --- | |
| EE | B | AH | T | TABBY | |
| BOGEY | BOGO | TOGO | TOGA | YOGA | |
| OE | T | UH | Y | --- | |
| EE | B | OE | T | TOBY | |
| DEN | TEN | TELL | TALL | FALL | |
| T | L | AW | F | --- | |
| D | N | EH | T | TEND | |
| DENT | LENT | LEFT | LIFT | LIST | |
| L | F | IH | S | --- | |
| D | N | EH | F | FEND | |
| FI | TIE | TOE | KNOW | KNEE | |
| T | OE | N | EE | TONY | |
| F | AI | T | OE | --- | |
| MIN | MITT | MOAT | NOTE | NODE | |
| T | OE | N | D | TONED | |
| N | IH | M | T | --- | |
This gives us a word from each of the 7 sets of 5 words. These 7 words themselves form another phoneme ladder.
| Extracted phrase from added sounds | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CABBY | TABBY | TOBY | TONY | TONED | TEND | FEND | |
| T | OE | N | D | EH | F | TONE-DEAF | |
| K | AH | B | EE | OE | T | --- | |
Extracting a single phrase from this new phoneme ladder gives us TONE-DEAF.