Is it “Camel-uh” or “Cam-ahl-uh”?

  • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    “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.

    • velox_vulnus@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      Insular brain-rot specimen over here with a limited capability to understand nuances, I know it hurts your head when I have to make you empathize with PoCs, and how they’re tired of correcting people all the time to the point that they give up and pick a approximate pronounciation, but clowns like you will do their best to decide what’s right for them, and at the same time, suppress what people from the same group have to say about it. Hilarious, right?