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Speaking backwards: the complete almanac
People have reversed words for at least two thousand years: as word games, as secret codes, as magic, as studio tricks and now as a social media challenge. This is everything about it in one place.
What speaking backwards actually means
"Speaking backwards" covers three different things, and most confusion comes from mixing them up.
- Reversing the sounds. You say a phrase so that a recording of you, played in reverse, comes out as the real words. Linguists call this phonetic reversal. It is what the reverse singing challenge and the Red Room in Twin Peaks use.
- Reversing the letters or syllables. You read a word backwards and say it forwards, like yob for "boy" or French meuf for femme. Played backwards it still sounds like nonsense. This is how backwards slangs work.
- Reversing a recording. You record normal speech and play the tape backwards. Nobody speaks backwards at all. This is backmasking.
Inside the almanac
- History of speaking backwardsFrom the Pompeii word square to TikTok, year by year.
- BackmaskingBackwards messages in records, the satanic panic and what the research found.
- Backwards slang around the worldBack slang, verlan, vesre and a dozen other codes.
- The scienceWhy it is hard, and what brain scans of fluent backwards speakers show.
- Famous backwards talkersRecord holders, TV and film, and musicians who sang backwards.
- How to talk backwardsThe method, with worked examples.
A to Z of speaking backwards
A sound recorded backwards onto a track meant to be played forwards. More
Victorian London code that says words spelt backwards. Gave English the word yob.
The old belief that saying the Lord's Prayer backwards calls up the Devil.
Gliding vowels reverse too: "eye" played backwards sounds like "yah".
The Swedish coffee break, often explained as a 19th century reversal of kaffi.
The town in Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood. Read it backwards.
The old slang of Paris butchers, a cousin of verlan.
Text that reads the same both ways, like racecar.
A sound that is the same backwards. A recording of "in the mix" is one, which is why DJs love it.
Reversing the sounds of a phrase rather than its letters. The skill behind every good reverse video.
Sing a line, play it backwards, learn the gibberish, film it and reverse the video. More
The claim that hidden messages sit in normal speech played backwards. Rejected by mainstream science.
A Latin word square that reads the same in four directions, found in Pompeii.
French slang that swaps syllables. The name itself is l'envers reversed.
Buenos Aires slang from al revés: café becomes feca.
"Boy" in back slang, now ordinary English.
Questions
Where does speaking backwards come from?
Reversed text goes back at least to the Sator Square found in Pompeii, from before AD 62. Spoken backwards codes are recorded from the 19th century, in London back slang and French verlan. Reversed recordings came with the tape era, and the Beatles made them famous in 1966.
Is speaking backwards a real skill?
Yes. A few people can do it fluently and have been studied with brain scans. Most people can learn short phrases by recording them, playing them backwards and copying the sound.
What is the difference between backmasking and talking backwards?
Backmasking reverses a recording of normal speech. Talking backwards means you produce the reversed sounds yourself, so that a reversed recording of you sounds normal.
Try it with Revocal
Revocal reverses any line, plays it back slowed down until you can copy it, then films one take and plays you back forwards. Free on iPhone and Android.
