Is it “Camel-uh” or “Cam-ahl-uh”?
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
Isn’t the Pokemon’s name pronounced like coma + koala? Coma and comma are different.
🤷I’ve been pronouncing it as Ko-Ma-La without the emphasise of ow. I appreciate this post though, i’ve seen so many asian name being butchered by english speaking country it become annoying.
Ko-Ma-La without the emphasise of ow.
I’m not sure I follow. Coma would probably be “ko-ma”, like I’d suggested, whereas comma is something like “cah-ma”…but I’m not sure where the “ow” comes in
“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”
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.
As opposed to “Mr President” which seems common enough
So say we all.
Rhymes with Pamela.
I pronounce it like the toki pona word “kalama”
No, i do not swap “la” and “ma”
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I think it’s pronounced Kah-muh-lah
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Comma-la
Obama, Obamala, 'bamala, Kamala
That’s one of the cleverest pronunciation guides I’ve ever seen.
…Fee-fi fo-mala, Kah-malllah! 🎵
Oh shit here come the conspiracy theories now…
Guise. Guise. They’re both black… Dons tinfoil hat
Tomorrow on Alex Jones’ podcast: Kamala Harris is actually Barrack Obama in drag. It’s all part of his nefarious plan to subverting term limits and force Healthcare on everyone.
RW people: “Wait a min…”
Whoa Black Betty, 'bamala
Thanks Obamala.
Anyone else craving olives after reading this thread?
,-la
Geno·cider Fas·cist
Careful you don’t cut yourself on all that edge
Mocking enablers of zionist ethnic cleansing is edgy? You must’ve gotten lost on your way back to the r/politics DNC corpomedia grifter cult.
Car-mullah
Watch miss marvel and listen how her mother calls her.
“Kamala”
However she pronounces it.
Right right right
and that would be … ?
Oh, I found the video on her Youtube channel literally addressing this question back in 2016:
and that would be … ?
…the correct pronunciation.
Did you read the rest of my post? You can’t say “correctly pronounce it”, and then not give instruction. That doesn’t help anyone.
If the video specifically made to teach you how to pronounce her name didn’t help, what makes you think I can?
Your original post tells us to pronounce it the way she says it, but doesn’t actually show us how she says it.
How did you expect us to pronounce it correctly if we haven’t heard her say it?
Your original post tells us to pronounce it the way she says it, but doesn’t actually show us how she says it.
Because I’m not her. You figured it out and found a video on your own, you clearly didn’t need me. Why would I know better than her how to pronounce it?
How did you expect us to pronounce it correctly if we haven’t heard her say it?
I didn’t. I presumed that if someone cared enough, they would find an appropriate video; that presumption was proven correct. But I never expected anyone to do anything, certainly not to get so incredibly butt-hurt by mild sarcasm.
You didn’t link to that video.
I never said I did.
You referred to it retroactively.
Comma-luh
KAH-muh-luh HAER-is
Kamala (/ˈkɑːmələ/) Harris (/ˈhærɪs/)
Fun fact.
In Finnish “kamala” means “awful”.
We are gonna have endless dad jokes with this one.
She does have the truly AWFUL job of being a women of color that our nation is depending on to beat one of the worst once elected, twice impeached former presidents.
In British English, Trump means (1) the sound an elephant makes or (2) a fart, particularly a noisy one. If you trump your own horn it means you’re boastful and think of yourself higher than other people do.
President Trump = President Fart.
Still funny after all these years, despite the looming fascism.
