As per the doll, here is the part that is supposed to say "Islam is" [the light]. The last segment, could conceivably be 'the light' or 'delight'. http://www.geocities.com/alenaa_new/islam-is.wav

Play it through about 5 times in quick succession, and you'll notice that the sound [s] never appears. I heard something like [Igla:?I] (the capital "I" represents a short 'i' as in 'big'. The question mark represents a glottal stop, such as in a Cockney pronunciation of 'butter', where the 'tt' is just a catch in the throat.) In non-phonetic transcription, it would be something like: igla'i.

I LOVE knowing a person who has an MA in linguistics!!

What do you think of the sound of the guy yelling "kill him" in the McCain video in the post above?

Some people are saying that he didn't say "kill him". But thats what I hear.

It's harder to tell on this one. http://www.geocities.com/alenaa_new/killhim.mp3

What caught my attention were two things:

1) The woman's voice in response to what McCain's question of what Obama wants.

http://www.geocities.com/alenaa_new/woman-killhim.mp3

This one sounds more like "killer" to me, at least at first. Hmm...it could also be, and probably is "go get 'm".

2) The look on McCain's face after the man's response to who the real Obama is.

http://www.geocities.com/alenaa_new/man-killhim.mp3

He may have said "kill it". Listening to it in isolation, without the video, though, it isn't clear. The most I hear it repeated, the more I hear "tell it".

It's actually well documented that initial stops (like [k] and [t]) can be confused or even used where one wouldn't expect them. For example, many people in Germany actually pronounce the /k/ in Klaus as a [t], because they are both voiceless stops, but [t] is closer to [l] than [k] is.

Crowds are really hard to decipher. It was also really hard to make out a lot of what the boys' drill team was saying in one of your earlier posts.

Just like with the doll, what one hears is often more determined by what one is expecting to hear than what is actually in the string of sounds. Even with the doll, when I was expecting "Islam", that's what I heard. The vowels are plausible, and that's what we hear best. However, when I was listening to it in isolation listening for other sounds, that's when it became obvious that it was something else.

If I had more complex software, I might be able to do more with it. I'll pass this on to someone with more resources and see if he's interested in analyzing it.

The man could also be saying "terrorist". Unfortunately, the roar of the crowd makes it hard to make out /s/ sounds.

"Tell it" is still quite possible, though.

/r/ and /l/ are often easily interchanged across linguistic systems. A native Puerto Rican, for example, will say he comes from "Puelto Rico". Also, think of Asians trying to pronounce either /l/ or /r/.

Oh, and my Masters isn't technically in linguistics, it's in German ;) I've just focused on linguistics.