Just in case you are still unsure on how to pronounce Kamala:

[Kathryn]

Y'all. Pretty sure it's KAHM ala HAR ris. That's what I'm calling her anyway.

 

[mangalavara]

And if the discussion was written in Sanskrit you might have a valid point. But was written in English with English Roman based characters. And that is an apostrophe that I used. It is the closest that my keyboard has to an accent mark. And you seem to have missed the point about the song.

I am sorry for letting my pride get the best of me. Your point is a point that I understand. I am sorry for my attitude in the previous post.

 

[Subduction Zone]

I am sorry for letting my pride get the best of me. Your point is a point that I understand. I am sorry for my attitude in the previous post.

No problem. I was not contesting the pronunciation. Randy Rainbow does political satire. He supports Harris extremely strongly and needed a song that went with her name. This is the song that he based his work on:

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I thought it was pronounced as two words, Karma La, smushed together. Say that 5 times fast.

Her name actually comes from:

According to her name she is on the wrong side, since the swamp and their minions are the parasitic worms. She is not real to her name, but a fake. Parasites are like uninvited guests that take away the resources of the host like illegal immigration and Conrad Czar Harris did to the USA. The RNC can use this if they want, since names, words, memes and jingles, mean so much to the DNC base. Substance is of lessor importance.

Pssst...despite my name I'm not really a princess. Or a plate if we use the Japanese word.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I wonder if the Randy Rainbow video from four years ago was the inspiration for this image:

View attachment 94925

A coconut with any sort of Kamalot/Camelot, does she know the airspeed velocity of an unlaided swallow?
And they get coconuts in DC? Did they migrate?

 

[AsianActivist]

If you are still mispronouncing (hopefully Future President) Harris' name incorrectly at this point, chances are you may be a racist.

 

[anna.]

 

[Copernicus]

Yeah, that guy pronounces her name like Kāmala (kaa-ma-la). In Sanskrit, the word kāmala means ‘lustful, libidinous.’ On the other hand, Kamalā (ka-ma-laa) is an actual name in Sanskrit and it means ‘Excellent woman’ and ‘An orange.’ It is related to the noun kamalam, meaning ‘lotus’ and ‘copper.’ Of course, not many people in the US are aware, and they probably wouldn’t care.

The personal name means "lotus flower" and is written कमल (transliterated as "kamala") in Sanskrit devanagari script (see https://sanskritdictionary.com/kamala/49591/1). If you read devanagari, you can see that there are no geminate or long "a" vowels in the word, but it is sometimes listed as kamalam in online sources. I'm not sure why, but that would be the accusative form in Sanskrit. All three vowels would basically be pronounced as the neutral vowel [ə], which is roughly the vowel sound in the word "hug" in English. It is spelled the same way in Hindi devanagari script, but pronounced without the final vowel: basically kuh-muhl, which is slightly different from what the English spelling implies. Kamala Harris herself does not pronounce it like a Hindi speaker, and the word for "lotus flower" is different in Tamil. The name her parents gave her is derived from Sanskrit, an Indo-European language. Tamil is a Dravidian language, which is entirely different from the Indo-European languages spoken in the north of India. Her family is from Chennai (formerly Madras). Tamil is the most common language spoken in that city.

Of course, the way Kamala Harris pronounces her name would be the standard for English, so the vowels would be /a/ as in father and stress on the second syllable. (Stress is phonetically different from vowel length, but English speakers hear long vowels as stress or loudness.) Most people pronounce it with stress on the first syllable. It is a common tendency in English for stress to shift towards the first syllable, and I don't think she minds.

 

[mangalavara]

The personal name means "lotus flower" and is written कमल (transliterated as "kamala") in Sanskrit devanagari script (see https://sanskritdictionary.com/kamala/49591/1). If you read devanagari, you can see that there are no geminate or long "a" vowels in the word, but it is sometimes listed as kamalam in online sources.

If her mother gave her a Sanskrit name, which is what I suspect, then it must be one of these two: kamalā or kamala (please understand that I am transliterating those Sanskrit words according to IAST). The former name is likely the case.

According to the Hindi article about her on Wikipedia, her first name is कमला. That exact same name in Sanskrit is transliterated as kamalā in IAST. Of course, the vice president is not of Hindustani origin but Tamil rather. So, looking at the Tamil article about her on Wikipedia, she is கமலா. Transliterated using ISO 15919, it is kamalā. In both cases, Hindi and Tamil, the first two vowels are neutral and sound like the a in about. Also, in both cases, the final vowel is like the a in father.

It would be nice if she or her campaign could clarify what exactly is the name, कमल (kamala) or कमला (kamalā). So far, the Tamil and Hindi Wikipedia articles go with a name that can be transliterated as kamalā. It is the same name as a goddess and a river in Bihar.

Of course, the way Kamala Harris pronounces her name would be the standard for English, so the vowels would be /a/ as in father and stress on the second syllable. (Stress is phonetically different from vowel length, but English speakers hear long vowels as stress or loudness.) Most people pronounce it with stress on the first syllable. It is a common tendency in English for stress to shift towards the first syllable, and I don't think she minds.

She and other people can pronounce the name however they want to pronounce it. I understand that there is an American English way of doing it. Nonetheless, in my mind, it would sound weird. It is kind of like how a lot of Americans pronounce the names Iran and Iraq in ways that sound really weird to me (‘eye ran’ sounds like an eyeball grew some legs and did an act of running).

 

[Copernicus]

If her mother gave her a Sanskrit name, which is what I suspect, then it must be one of these two: kamalā or kamala (please understand that I am transliterating those Sanskrit words according to IAST). The former name is likely the case.

According to the Hindi article about her on Wikipedia, her first name is कमला. That exact same name in Sanskrit is transliterated as kamalā in IAST. Of course, the vice president is not of Hindustani origin but Tamil rather. So, looking at the Tamil article about her on Wikipedia, she is கமலா. Transliterated using ISO 15919, it is kamalā. In both cases, Hindi and Tamil, the first two vowels are neutral and sound like the a in about. Also, in both cases, the final vowel is like the a in father.

It would be nice if she or her campaign could clarify what exactly is the name, कमल (kamala) or कमला (kamalā). So far, the Tamil and Hindi Wikipedia articles go with a name that can be transliterated as kamalā. It is the same name as a goddess and a river in Bihar.

But I don't need to look at IAST, since I can read both Sanskrit and Hindi in devanagari script with some fluency. Your Hindi article did spell it with a final long "aa" sound (कमला), contrary to what I said in my last post, but there are various spellings for it in the massive Sanskrit literature. It seems to be standard with the final long 'aa' in Hindi, but the family are not native speakers of Hindi. It really depends on which document you find it in. The most common one that I have seen in etymologies of the personal name is कमल (without any long vowels). However, I am not a native speaker of any Indian language, nor am I an expert in Indian languages. My Sanskrit skills are adequate for what I have used them for--primarily linguistic research.

See this source, which gives a variety of spellings for 'kamala':

Kamala, Kamalā, Kāmalā, Kāmāla, Kama-la: 52 definitions​

She and other people can pronounce the name however they want to pronounce it. I understand that there is an American English way of doing it. Nonetheless, in my mind, it would sound weird. It is kind of like how a lot of Americans pronounce the names Iran and Iraq in ways that sound really weird to me (‘eye ran’ sounds like an eyeball grew some legs and did an act of running).

I doubt that Kamala Harris speaks Sanskrit, Hindi, or Tamil. She was raised in an English speaking environment. I pronounce my own Polish surname in an anglicized version that is very different from the way it is actually pronounced in Polish, and I'm sure that Kamala Harris does the same with her first name. Apparently, she stresses the first syllable and advises people to pronounce it like 'comma-la'.

You’re Probably Still Saying Kamala Harris’ Name Wrong​