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How do I pronounce "Kamala"?
(aussie.zone)
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this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2024
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Asklemmy
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My friend, Americans do not care about how words are pronounced in the original language/location.
Some of us do.
It's a name, not a word.
Proper nouns are, in fact, words.
Man they really don't teach you guys basic English.
Proper nouns are names. Birmingham, AL and Birmingham, UK have different pronunciations
... Yes? And for the full points, what is a noun?
A noun is a part of speech representing an object that can be described.
That's not how she pronounces her name, so it's not her name.
The Vice president of the United States is named Kamala (/ˈkɑːmələ/) Harris (/ˈhærɪs/)
Her name isn't कमला, it's Kamala. It's written in the latin alphabet on her American birth certificate. She pronounces her own name as ˈkɑːmələ. It doesn't matter what the similar-sounding common name from a different country used by different people is. Her name is Kamala. ˈkɑːmələ.
First of all, If we anglicized her name, we would get 'kəmɑːlə, not ˈkɑːmələ, so that argument makes no sense. English has a tendancy to stress the second to last syllable of a name or word, and shift the vowel there accordingly. I will admit that you're right in that the birth certificate thing isn't the best example of what determines a name. Trans people, or anyone else who wishes to change their name from what their parents wrote at birth, are completely valid in their new name. But the point I was making is that she hasn't embraced the Devanagari spelling of her name, the way she has the Latin spelling. She's chosen a pronunciation of that spelling for herself, and been vocal about how she wants it said. Respect it, or shut up.
Second, she's not an immigrant. She was born in the US and is an American citizen by birth, which is (unfortunately) a requirement to run for president. Her name may originate from a similar sounding name from a different language, but that similar sounding name is not her name. The experiences of people who were happy with their name and were later forced to change it is a separate issue. To insist she change her name to fit your perception of what she should be called is exactly the thing you're chastising me for doing. Which again, I'm not. I'm supporting her in the name she chooses to use.
Third, "John" is another example that actually proves why your argument is wrong. It comes from the old hebrew יְהוֹחָנָן. But as other cultures adopted the name and changed it to be their own over hundreds of years, small changes turned it into Ιωάννης in Greek, Johannes in Latin, Jean in French, and eventually John in modern English. Why is the same thing happening to Kamala such an issue for you?
Her name is what she says her name is, and the circumstances that led her to choose her name are MORE VALID than your opinion of what her name should be. End of discussion.
https://youtu.be/GVGfzbP7WBY
I truly cannot stress enough how utterly socially unacceptable it is to correct someone's pronunciation of their own name. In this respect, names are different from other kinds of words. Please reconsider this embarrassing position of yours.
"Imperialism is when you respect someone's self identification" 🤡
If you pronounce it with all schwa vowels but you speak in a Hindi accent I'm sure nobody would bat an eye. As a white dude, I would probably sound more like I'm making fun of her Indian heritage if I imitated a Hindi accent to say her name as closely to how you say I should say it as possible. But in an American accent, this pronunciation is not accurate. It makes her name sound like "Cuh-muh-luh", which sounds more like a rude nickname related to semen than an earnest attempt to preserve her name's origin. Even ignoring my own arguments about why I want to say it the way she says it, it's just not
Most people can't control their voice with the precision needed to accurately preserve the original phonetics of everyone's names EXACTLY as they should be said. They can make the sounds they need for their language and very few more. Changes in pronunciation are inevitable, not imperialist. Imperialism would be if I went to India and insisted that everyone there named Kamala pronounced their name the way my Vice President does. Unfortunately the British did basically this, but that's not what's happening when a willing immigrant's child chooses for themselves what to be called.
"It's brain-rot to call someone what they tell you to call them" 🤡
Get fucked. We're talking about a person who has a name and has a preference to how it is pronounced. No one gives two shits or a single fuck how you feel about that.
You just want to be argumentative.
I’m an American who lives in Germany. The name my parents chose begins with [dʒ], but I haven’t introduced or thought of myself like that in years. My name therefore begins with [j].
It’s really cool that you’re informed about the language that her name stems from, but that’s not the name she uses.