Ever wonder what English sounds to outsiders? Man’s experiment speaking 'gibberish' is on point

When a child is born the area of the brain that processes language hasn’t yet developed in their tiny brain. But by the time they are 20, the brain of native English-speaking adults has around 27,000 to 52,000 words stored inside it. A complex process takes place during these two decades, that equips the baby's naive brain with features of language, speech, and comprehension. However, this is valid only for the language a person is familiar with and as soon as they hear a language they don’t understand, their brain goes back to baby mode, where none of the sounds make sense. A viral example of this is a TikTok video posted by Language Sim (@languagesimp) to demonstrates how English sounds to non-English speakers.

“Ever wondered what it’s like to not understand English,” Sim asked his followers in the caption of the video, which has since amassed over 10 million views and more than 41,000 comments. “This is how English sounds to foreigners,” he said in the video and then went on to spell out a series of gibberish words and phrases. Of all that he spoke, nothing was understandable to the viewers except for the phrase “dog water” that popped up near the video’s end. It seemed he played with the intonations and spellings of the actual English words while inserting words that didn't mean anything in between, just like the lyrics of Adriano Celentano’s song “Prisencolinensinainciusol.”

People in the comment section dubbed his gibberish language “Simlish,” but most of them were deeply baffled by his 20-second speech. “I felt like I understood this but didn't at the same time,” commented @silver_sun_440. While @doggodragonzx said, “It sounds like I should be able to understand this, but when I try it makes no sense.”

Typically, the part of the human brain that processes language is located in the left hemisphere. While a part called “Broca’s area” is associated with speech production and articulation, another part called “Wernicke’s area” is associated with comprehension and meaning-making, according to CNN. TED-Ed explains that each word a person knows is stored inside the brain’s cortex as a separate processing unit with its meaning stored in another unit. When the person hears a word, several thousand units are activated as neurons start firing rapidly. When the word is uttered completely, the brain reaches the “recognition point,” where it retrieves the correct word from the memory storage.

When the brain hears gibberish, just like Sim recited in the video, the brain seems to be unable to retrieve any matching unit from the memory storage. Instead, it perceives the gibberish as an “audio illusion,” per The Atlantic. At first, the brain will try to connect it to the language it knows, or it will pick up a hint in one of the words, detect its rhythm, and then proceed. But at this point, understanding is beyond the grasp of the brain’s conscious control system.

So, overall, English is just "jibberish" to someone whose brain doesn't recognize it. An online voice marketplace, Voices, even compiled a list of expressions that describe what English sounds like to a non-English speaker. It includes:

· Slurred or garbled sounds

· Harsh “r”s

· Overuse of “s,” sh,” and “ch” sounds

· Interesting rhythms

· Melodic and sharp quality (British English)

· Different voice inflections

· Disjointedness, abruptness and aggressiveness

· The “ing” word ending

· Lack of clear consonant sounds at the beginning and end of words

· Too much vowel reduction and not enough phonemic distinction

· Overemphasis on the beginning of the word and underemphasis on the ending

· Choppy and disconnected sounds

· Open, round, and rolling vowels

· Soft consonants

· Flat sounds

You can follow Language Sim on TikTok for more language-related videos.