Is it “Camel-uh” or “Cam-ahl-uh”?
Obama, Obamala, 'bamala, Kamala
- Call me Lenny/Leni ( @shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee ) English32•9 months ago
Thanks Obamala.
That’s one of the cleverest pronunciation guides I’ve ever seen.
…Fee-fi fo-mala, Kah-malllah! 🎵
Comma-la (as she tells us to pronounce it), or even Com’la (as it is traditionally pronounced)
Thank you for this. I’ve heard her name mispronounced so often that I genuinely thought kah-MALL-uh was correct. Whoops! Comma-la it is!
Happy to help!
Oh, I shoulda linked to a first-hand source where she herself wrote “comma-la” as the pronunciation (no particular accent on syllables). It is in her book, and also towards the bottom of this piece has that excerpts from her book: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/book-excerpt-kamala-harris-truths-hold/story?id=60234101
kah-MALL-uh
The right mispronounces it that way intentionally.
As I’ve heard. Now we know better than to perpetuate it!
Commala? As in the pokemon Komala?
So it really is Komala Harris vs Trumpshoos
“Comma-la” unfortunately doesn’t help much for people without US accents lol (though of course people in the US are who the question and answer are most relevant to). On first reading – without the accent or something close to it – it implies “kom-uh-luh”, whereas with the accent it implies something more like “kah-muh-luh”, just based on how people pronounce “comma” differently.
It’s funny because the way you spelt it sounds like the first “don’t” of the video you linked. Americans in general seem to make a point of pronouncing things their way rather than how they should be. I don’t think it’s racism as much as it is laziness.
their way rather than how they should be.
Every language has different sounds. It has long been understood that languages will translate words/names into versions they can actually hear and pronounce. Sadly, some people mock or demean people who try to speak a non-native language and make errors in it. In the U.S. it used to be fairly common to mock Asians coming from a language with only one liquid consonant sound for their inability to differentiate between ‘r’ and ‘l’ sounds.
I know I can’t hear the difference in various Russian language vowels and while I can hear tones, I don’t know how I’d explain their pronunciation in an Anglicized name – or if it would be relevant.
While I appreciate that regional accents mean that non-U.S. citizens might not say “comma” the way it is heard in the U.S., I do expect that if a U.S. citizen tells me to pronounce their own name in a U.S. manner, then that is how it “should be” pronounced.
sorry are you saying people should pronounce their own names in ways they don’t prefer to be “correct”? Also etc etc language guides are descriptive not prescriptive.
I think it’s pronounced “Madam President”
So say we all.
Was wondering earlier, why not just President? Why add the “madam”?
It’s just a slightly more formal sounding title. This answer on stackexchange goes through some of the history on why alternatives aren’t used.
Karma-la… But drop the ‘r’
I pronounce it like the toki pona word “kalama”
No, i do not swap “la” and “ma”
Anyone else craving olives after reading this thread?
Watch miss marvel and listen how her mother calls her.
Neither! I also had this question. No emphasis on any part, karma-la.
Anyone have the IPA pronunciation?
- intensely_human ( @intensely_human@lemm.ee ) 2•9 months ago
Emphasis is on the first syllable, is how I’ve heard it.
“Kahm-lah”.
Ga-ma-la
- Call me Lenny/Leni ( @shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee ) English1•9 months ago
Kah-muh-luh as it would be pronounced in her mind. Or Camille, if it was anglicized.