# Why can't the Jill Carrol hostage video be lipread? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 19, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602 "2006-01-19T03:21:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/1 "2006-01-19T03:21:30Z")
I’ll admit I know nothing about lipreading. I don’t know whether it’s exact, or wildly inaccurate. But I’m surprised no one has come up with even a proposed transcript for the video. I googled to no avail. Man, I hope she makes it back ☹ :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/2 "2006-01-19T03:26:43Z")
They said she speaks Arabic. Maybe she’s speaking Arabic in the video. How would that be to lipread? ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/3 "2006-01-19T17:31:13Z")
Why would Arabic be any more difficult to lip read than English? Are the phonetics less “visual” on the lips? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/4 "2006-01-19T17:40:33Z")
> [@DarrenS](#): > > Why would Arabic be any more difficult to lip read than English? Are the phonetics less “visual” on the lips? I don’t know. That’s why I asked. ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/5 "2006-01-19T17:47:55Z")
Arabic is a “guttural” language, I think that it would be much harder to lip read, if she is speaking Arabic. I, too, hope she is released unharmed, but I don’t think her life is any more, or less, valuable than any other person involved in this ill concieved war. She is, at least, there as a matter of choice. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/6 "2006-01-19T19:30:59Z")
Before this wanders into GD territory (is there even a debate?) - of course I hope \*all \* the hostages get out safely. I can’t even begin to imagine the terror - I’d be crying like a baby non-stop in their position. It’s just that she happens to be in the news right now and a video was released in which she’s speaking but there’s no audio. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/7 "2006-01-19T19:56:13Z")
Some languages built upon tone differences are virtually impossible to lip read since the tone differences are not readily recognizable when simply viewed. My experiences with these are the languages of the Western Pacific Islands. That being said, I do not know if Arabic is a tonal language or not since I have not studied it. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/8 "2006-01-19T23:11:30Z")
Minor but hopefully informative tangent: A while back I asked whether Mandarin Chinese and other tonal languages were harder to lip-read than non-tonal languages like English, and if so, how deaf people in China coped with it. I got a lot of compliments for an interesting question, but no concrete responses. So as far as I’m concerned it’s still an open inquiry. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/9 "2006-01-20T00:23:08Z")
> [@TV time](#): > > Some languages built upon tone differences are virtually impossible to lip read since the tone differences are not readily recognizable when simply viewed. My experiences with these are the languages of the Western Pacific Islands. > > That being said, I do not know if Arabic is a tonal language or not since I have not studied it. Arabic is not a tonal language. However, it does include as consonants voiced and unvoiced glottal stops which won’t be “readable” in the manner of labial and dental consonants. The vowels on either side of a glottal consonant will be readable to the extent that they affect position of the lips and tongue. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/10 "2006-01-20T00:40:12Z")
Of course, this all presumes she was speaking in Arabic in the video; do we have any reason to think this is the case? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/11 "2006-01-20T00:41:41Z")
No one has claimed that she can’t be lip read. Maybe she can. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/12 "2006-01-20T01:09:05Z")
Arabic certainly _can_ be lip-read. I remember reading a year or so ago about a software package that was developed to do it mechanically. I’m sure that human beings can manage it better. On CNN yesterday, they said that the people over at the Christian Science Monitor said that they hadn’t had the tape analysed by a lip-reader. I imagine that this was in direct response to a question from a reporter. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-the-jill-carrol-hostage-video-be-lipread/340602/13 "2006-01-21T18:14:40Z")
From an Associated Press [article](http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060121/NEWS06/601210424/1012) by Jim Krane, Jan. 21: > [@](#): > > When tapes come in — the network rarely says how it gets them — Al-Jazeera’s editors wrangle over what portions, if any, they can air, al-Sheikh said. > > In the case of the bin Laden message broadcast Thursday, the station played only a few minutes of the 10-minute tape, based on what it considered important, he said. The entire tape was transcribed and posted on Al-Jazeera’s Web site. > > Tapes of kidnap victims are the most problematic. When they arrive, the station gets in touch with the hostage’s embassy and asks a representative to view the tape and contact the family. Only when the family is notified does Al-Jazeera air any footage, al-Sheikh said. > > Even then, it airs only parts that show the victim in “the most humane light possible,” he said. Al-Jazeera’s editorial policies now prohibit it from carrying the voices of kidnappers or their victims.