# BBC pronunciation of "Barack Obama" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 13, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483 "2008-02-13T19:46:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/21 "2008-02-14T01:58:56Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] And yet Americans pronounce the British car company “Jaguar” as “Jag-war” or “Jag-wire”, not “Jag-you-uh”. (Yes, I’m aware of the irony that it was originally a South American word, but the car company is pronounced “Jag-you-uh”.) [/quote] I don’t understand the point you’re making. Both Americans and British pronounce _Jaguar_ the auto brand the same way they pronounce _jaguar_ the animal. This only makes sense. (see my response to Zsofia) This falls exactly into line with the observation that I made: the American pronunciation of the word is less anglicized than the British one. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/22 "2008-02-14T02:05:27Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] However, to my ears, the US “Booda” and “Boodism” sounds absolutely ridiculous. I know qualitatively it’s not, but when I hear it, I can’t help it sounding to me like it’s (to paraphrase) “willingness to push Americanisation of a word much farther than British English speakers”. [/QUOTE] Even though actually makes the pronunciation closer to the actual Sanskrit pronunciation than ? ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/23 "2008-02-14T03:55:58Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener] I smile every time I hear a BBC newsreader pronounce Maryland as “Mary-land” instead of the American “Merrillind,” which may not be “correct” but is our way of saying it. It’s the BBC’s stubbornness that cracks me up, as if someone in management there insists on upholding a low-level linguistic pedagogical imperative to correct the wayward former colonies. [/QUOTE] Or maybe they just pronounce it the same way everyone else in Britain pronounces it, which would be an entirely reasoonable way to communicate with their audience. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/24 "2008-02-14T04:18:04Z")
> [@ascenray](#): > > Even though actually makes the pronunciation closer to the actual Sanskrit pronunciation than ? I don’t know about Sanskrit, but the Hindi pronunciation is much more like the second (upside-down omega) sound. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/25 "2008-02-14T05:08:23Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > You mean where I said: “How does he say it”. As a citizen of the US, I hereby issue the United Kingdom a 100% money-back guarantee that the accepted American pronunciation of any major American Presidential candidate’s name is _always_ the candidate’s preferred one. There’s no way any alternate pronunciation could possibly gain any foothold here, considering the saturation of media coverage of the major candidates these days. That said, I don’t think it’s a big deal. I don’t think any American would bend over backwards to pronounce “Nigel” exactly the way the English do, and if they did it would probably come across as insulting. > [@Usram](#): > > So you’re trying to approximate what you merely guess to be the correct pronunciation? Maybe the British version is closer, who knows? It doesn’t matter what the Kenyan pronunciation is; it’s not Kenya’s name, it’s Barack Obama’s name. He gets to decide. Again, I personally wouldn’t get too butthurt about a dialect difference, but the idea that the one closer to the original language is “correct” is a canard. If Aaron moved from the US to Spain and wanted his name to be pronounced Arón, it would be inappropriate (maybe even disrespectful) for an Italian news anchor to ignore that and mangle the original American pronunciation instead. > [@The Scrivener](#): > > It’s the BBC’s stubbornness Who says they’re being stubborn? I bet it’s just the natural way it rolls off the British [newscaster’s] tongue. It’s a fallacy to assume things about a speaker’s character based on his language usage, especially when you’re talking about dialect differences. > [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > I think I read this somewhere: Someone was looking for a house near Washington, DC. People kept telling her to look in Merlin, but she couldn’t find it. Similarly (well, in reverse), like every other East Coast transplant, it took me a while to find “La Hoya”. 😃 To be fair, I was 10. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/26 "2008-02-14T05:18:00Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] As a citizen of the US, I hereby issue the United Kingdom a 100% money-back guarantee that the accepted American pronunciation of any major American Presidential candidate’s name is _always_ the candidate’s preferred one. [/quote] I can’t provide a presidential counterexample, but Dick Cheney’s pronunciation of his last name is CHEE-ney, not CHAIN-ey, so far as I’ve always known. If Cheney ever ran for president (thank God he never will), I suspect you’d have to renege on that 100% money-back guarantee. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/27 "2008-02-14T05:24:01Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] I can’t provide a presidential counterexample, but Dick Cheney’s pronunciation of his last name is CHEE-ney, not CHAIN-ey, so far as I’ve always known. If Cheney ever ran for president (thank God he never will), I suspect you’d have to renege on that 100% money-back guarantee. [/QUOTE] Cheney doesn’t count; you have to be human to run for President. (His buddy straddled the line, but the Supreme Court ruled that simians count.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/28 "2008-02-14T05:36:59Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] Cheney doesn’t count; you have to be human to run for President. (His buddy straddled the line, but the Supreme Court ruled that simians count.) [/QUOTE] 🙂 Okay, how 'bout Roosevelt? Doesn’t that go three ways: ROO-zuh-velt or ROW-zuh-velt, or ROSE-velt (which I believe is how Teddy pronounced it, at least, and I think Franklin’s pronunciation was closer to the second). ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/29 "2008-02-14T08:20:13Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener] I smile every time I hear a BBC newsreader pronounce Maryland as “Mary-land” instead of the American “Merrillind,” which may not be “correct” but is our way of saying it. It’s the BBC’s stubbornness that cracks me up, as if someone in management there insists on upholding a low-level linguistic pedagogical imperative to correct the wayward former colonies. [/QUOTE] I assure you, you’re reading too much into it. It’s ignorance, nothing more. You want to hear most of us trying to say “jalapeño”. I’m being a devil’s avocado here, but since “Jaguar” the car company is a proper noun, it really should be pronounced as its originators pronounced it. JAG-you-uh. (To weird you out even further, that font of all human knowledge? We and the Irish say SESS-ul Adams. And though I know it’s wrong, wild horses will never make me pronounce it SEE-sul.) ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/30 "2008-02-14T10:51:14Z")
It used to be a sore point here in Ireland when a BBC announcer pronounced (former taoiseach/prime minister) Charlie Haughey’s name as “Charlie Hockey”. Gallagher is pronounced “Gallaher” here and “Gallagger” in Britain, Doherty becomes “Dockerty” etc. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/31 "2008-02-14T14:44:29Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] I’m being a devil’s avocado here, but since “Jaguar” the car company is a proper noun, it really should be pronounced as its originators pronounced it. JAG-you-uh. [/QUOTE] Dialects and accents don’t stop existing just because a word is a proper noun. There has been some mention of affectation. If it’s [dZ&gwAr] in your accent, then in my mind, it’s an affectation to say [dz&gju@] just because you’re referring to the car. It’s like changing your accent just for one word. It sounds goofy and pretentious. Someone with a different accent shouldn’t have to mimic your accent just to say your name. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/32 "2008-02-14T14:52:32Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] Dialects and accents don’t stop existing just because a word is a proper noun. [/QUOTE] I can’t square this assertion, and most of those preceding it, with your original statement that “British English speakers are willing to push anglicization of a word much farther than American English speakers.” I give up. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/33 "2008-02-14T14:58:11Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Here’s how [he pronounces](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaU3fjVAFbE) his own name. [/QUOTE] You could have warned that you need a bucket to listen to that. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/34 "2008-02-14T15:04:01Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] I can’t square this assertion, and most of those preceding it, with your original statement that “British English speakers are willing to push anglicization of a word much farther than American English speakers.” [/QUOTE] It might help if you noticed that I never labeled such willingness as being incorrect or wrong. It’s not a judgment; just an observation. Note that I never suggested that the BBC should change its pronunciation of Barack Obama’s name. Indeed, in Post 11 I said: > [@](#): > > I disagree with the notion that people are required to change their accents when they speak someone else’s name. If ['b&r@k] is the natural pronunciation in British English, they don’t have to switch to an American accent just because Barack Obama himself speaks with an American accent. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/35 "2008-02-14T15:14:53Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] Charlie Haughey’s name as “Charlie Hockey”. [/QUOTE] I always liked this way of fixing that. Ask the Brit what sound a donkey makes. Then tell them to say the 2nd syllable first and the first 2nd. They then get it right 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/36 "2008-02-14T15:43:44Z")
[QUOTE=Lama Pacos] I don’t know about Sanskrit, but the Hindi pronunciation is much more like the second (upside-down omega) sound. [/QUOTE] Sanskrit doesn’t have that vowel. The two _u_s are both , differentiated only by length. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/37 "2008-02-14T16:02:14Z")
This reminds me about a debate I had with a couple friends sometime around 1999, when we were arguing about how you should pronounce “Linux.” Everybody else pronounced it LINN-ux, but I said LINE-ux. Somebody produced a recording of Linus Torvalds saying “Hi, this is LEE-nus Torvalds, and I pronounce LEEN-ux as LEEN-ux.” So we were both wrong. But I maintained that the name was basically “Linus” with an x replacing the s, and since I pronounce the name “Linus” as “LINE-us,” I was going to pronounce the OS as “LINE-ux” too. This led to a big debate about whether or not we should all switch to saying “LEEN-ux” like Linus Torvalds, because as the originator he should be able to dictate the name of his OS. Personally, I still like “LINE-ux.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/38 "2008-02-14T23:13:33Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] (To weird you out even further, that font of all human knowledge? We and the Irish say SESS-ul Adams. And though I know it’s wrong, wild horses will never make me pronounce it SEE-sul.) [/QUOTE] Curiously, in **A Room With a View** , various characters pronounce that name (attached to Lucy’s fiance, played by Daniel Day Lewis) differently: Lucy’s mother says “Cee-cil,” but Lucy and her brother say “Siss-il,” as does Cecil’s mother, Mrs. Vyse; and then I’m afraid I was distracted by the skinny-dipping scene – and Cecil, by any pronounciation, was happily forgotten. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2008, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/39 "2008-02-15T12:15:41Z")
O’Bama is Irish. His name rhymes with potater. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483/40 "2008-02-16T14:47:48Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] I’m being a devil’s avocado here, but since “Jaguar” the car company is a proper noun, it really should be pronounced as its originators pronounced it. JAG-you-uh. [/QUOTE] This reminds of some other company names which we Brits used to pronounce ‘wrongly’ and have since been corrected through the powers of the media. When I was growing up, ‘Nike’ was pronounced like ‘bike’ and ‘Adidas’ was ‘a-DEE-dus’. Now we’ve been reprogrammed to say ‘Nigh-kee’ and ‘ADD-i-das’. Thank God Reebok is a British brand so I can feel comfortable with the pronunciation of at least one brand of trainer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-pronunciation-of-barack-obama/437483.md?page=3)