Pronounce Kamala

[HelenWheels]

apparently it is like Comma, as in a sentence and La

however we pronounce comma differently in UK
i guess it should be pronounced as they do in America rather than we would in UK?

How the hell are posters putting an R into Kamala???????

THERE IS NO R!!!!!!!

Because some accents make people believe that there are ‘r’s all over the place, but they also believe that ‘r’ is silent, so it doesn’t matter - they never pronounce them anyway.

Agree. But my inlaws (who are from the NW of England) stick R on the end of any name ending in the "a" sound - Hanner instead of Hannah, Ameliarr instead of Amelia etc. So Kamalar.

It's just the way they speak and it's not wrong any more than the way I speak. What is wrong/ignorant is thinking your way is the only way and saying that anyone who doesn't pronounce Hannah to rhyme with Spanner is wrong.

it is not obvious,
should i put on an american accent?

Oh fgs. How is calm-ala putting on an american accent???????

The way I’d pronounce Calm-ala doesn’t sound to me like the way she says it. I think is sounds more like a cross between Come-ala and Karma-la. I doubt she’d be upset by a Brit saying Kam-Ala/Karma-la. nypost.com/video/heres-how-to-properly-pronounce-kamala-harris-name/

A long ‘a’ vowel sound does sound like ‘aaah’ to rhyme with bar. Americans often use long ‘a’ where we use a short ‘a’. They say parsta while we say pasta, for example. Let’s call the whole thing off!

This sort of example is exactly how rhotic speakers in Britain, of which there are many, become exasperated and frustrated,

There's no reason to write "r" when you could right "ah" and it would make sense to everyone.

They say "pahsta" or even "possta".

A Scottish/Northern Irish/Bristollian/Cornish person and so on would pronounce parsta or bar very differently to pahsta or bah (as in bah humbug). I speak RP, but not everyone does and we need to stop using r when we mean ah on threads like this.

Who cares

In many accents aah doesn’t rhyme with bar. In mine and presumably yours it does.

For the person you are replying to they don’t rhyme. Americans do not say parsta. They use a long aah sound, but they don’t have an r in there. You don’t pronounce the r when you say parsta because you have a non-rhotic accent.

Again, most English speakers (but not a majority in England) pronounce the R in bar, it doesn't just elongate the vowel. So aaah may have the same vowel sound as bar but they don't rhyme.

Americans also don't say parsta they mostly have rhotic accents. They say pahsta.

But your pahsta is my parsta! Same sound to me.

According to a talk by Clive Myrie it's Kommala. I suspect he'd know.

That’s not quite how she pronounces it though

I'm just trying to get across that there are plenty of english words that equate roughly with how she says it that would not invilve putting on an american accent. People are getting ridiculously hung up on how THEY pronounce english words. Their particulaf pronunciation may not directly equate. But really, Its so easy. Just listen to how she says it & copy the sound and the emphasis.

Accents are such a red herring. Listen to the clip. They say auntie the 'English' way, which happens to be what new englanders in America say, but not southerners etc etc.

Kamala - It's an Indian name - kumalah - Kamal meaning lotus flower - heavy on the K elongate the M then AH then LAA

I didn't realise he was Indian!

Yes, I think an approximation will do. Like saying New York rather than Noo Yark (sort of)

She doesn’t pronounce it like that though, which is why everyone’s in knots about it. I saw a video of Obama saying ‘cam a la’.

Wrong.

Kamal the islamic name means magical / wonder

It's a coincidence but her name is Kamal, Indian, Sanskrit, meaning lotus flower - nothing to do with the islamic Kamal / wonder / magical.

Pamala with a k.

Or kamal with an A on second look.

No, we don't. There's no "r" in comma.

The confusion with this explanation is that in the US, Pamela is pronounced differently. Pam, ham, Cam, ram, dam (all these have the same initial vowel sound in US speak.) It may not help you, as some of these have a different sound in the UK, but it's indicative of American English.

This is the closest I could find:
How to pronounce Pamela (American English/US)

I have only noticed the Comma-La pronunciation from everyone except Trump who is obsessed who how pretty she is (only he is prettier, he even said so, so it must be true)