Backwards Happy Birthday (!Yadhtrib Yppah) – How We Made it!

Yadhtrib Yppah is a project Papa and I (Magnolia) did to practice our IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) knowledge for my homeschool linguistics class, and to make a fun video for friends' and family's birthdays. (If you haven’t figured it out yet, “Yadhtrib Yppah” is Happy Birthday backwards.) Below is an explanation of how we made the video. 

1a. Transcribe the lyrics to Happy Birthday into IPA

ˈhaˌpi ˈbəɹθˌdeɪ tu yu

ˈhaˌpi ˈbəɹθˌdeɪ tu yu

ˈhaˌpi ˈbəɹθˌdeɪ diɹ ___(name)___

ˈhaˌpi ˈbəɹθˌdeɪ tu yu

1b. Reverse it

uy ut ˌɪedˈθɹəb ˌipˈah 
__(backwards name)__ ɹid ˌɪedˈθɹəb ˌipˈah
uy ut ˌɪedˈθɹəb ˌipˈah 

uy ut ˌɪedˈθɹəb ˌipˈah

2. Write sheet music for Happy Birthday & Reverse it

3. Practice saying the lyrics of Happy Birthday backwards

As said: https://youtu.be/NKJwkW5sBRY

Reversed: https://youtu.be/I28VM95T7ZY

4. Practice playing the music of Happy Birthday backwards on the piano

As played: https://youtu.be/pCA_VajRgJY

Reversed: https://youtu.be/t26HZIDOVc4

(There is a mistake in these videos, but we fixed it during the process)

5. Put it together; practice playing Happy Birthday backwards while singing it backwards

{happy bday backwards singing and backwards piano}

Reversed: https://youtu.be/kyBbfWM_1vU

6. Make the video 

https://youtu.be/Fe-tIXDAe_M

The template is done! Now for personalizing it for you, the Birthday Person!

7. Transcribe your name into IPA and reverse it

ex. Magnolia → mægˈnɔ.li.ʌ → ʌ.ilˈɔn.gæm

8. Record me singing your name backwards

9. Papa does some minor editing in iMovie to insert your name into the template

10. Upload to YouTube and send you the link

Yay! Let us know what you think in the comments! (Also, feel free to poke around our other linguistics blog posts if you wanna see what we've been up to, but know that those ones are a little rough because they weren't created with an outside audience in mind)