# What was the context of the First backwards analysis Of "Stairway to Heaven"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-context-of-the-first-backwards-analysis-of-stairway-to-heaven/295090>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-context-of-the-first-backwards-analysis-of-stairway-to-heaven/295090 "2005-03-18T01:59:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-context-of-the-first-backwards-analysis-of-stairway-to-heaven/295090/41 "2005-03-21T00:10:15Z")

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> [@Johanna](#):
>
> I just want to point out what should be obvious… spelling a word backwards will not give the actual backwards pronunciation. That’s because we don’t pronounce letters, we pronounce _phonemes_. The way to say a phrase backwards is to first identify the phonemes. For example, the long “i” vowel in a word like “Cite?” is actually a diphthong made of two phonemes. To get it backwards, you can’t just repeat the same way it’s said forwards. You have to make a diphthong in reverse order. So writing “?etiC” has nothing to do with how “Cite?” is said backwards. The phonemes in “Cite?” are sa:jt. Backwards is tja:s. (Here the letter j in IPA spells the sound of y.)
> 
> The _Twin Peaks_ DVD has special features including a tutorial by the actor Michael Anderson (The Man from Another Place), who was famous for speaking phonemes backwards in the Red Room, with the tape reversed to make the words come out frontwards, but sounding very bizarre. “Little Mike” reminded viewers to “First find the phonemes!”
> 
> lja:ts ni kæb ngimuk sti kja:l u:j mug tæð

I’d like to point out that spelling the word backward in IPA won’t really capture the sound of reversed speech either. **11811** ’s post alludes to this. The IPA symbols encode sounds that are spoken forward not backward. In other words the chunks of sound the symbols pick out are not uniform or symmetrical (either of which would produce the same sound pronounced forwards or backwards). The sound symbolized by an IPA symbol changes over time and varies according to the other sounds near it.

A given sound played backwards will not be exactly like the sound pronounced forwards. It may in fact sound very different. I believe that if you listen to a backwards tape of speech you ought to be able to distinguish sounds that were vowels from those that were consonants in the original recording. I imagine you might also be able to tell stops from fricatives

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