Cam (rhymes with jam)
Oh
meal
…from New England, USA.
I’m surprised at all the “uh” pronunciations for the middle syllable. Hmm. Perhaps I’ve been wrong all these years.
CAM
Oh (blurs into Uh when talking fast)
meal
I’m originally from So Cal. Wife from New England has the same pronunciation.
Ditto. Dit toe.
Same here. I’m a native Floridian (second generation).
Ditto. Old New Englander
KAM-oh-meel. California, central and central coast. Now northern, and I’ve only heard people say it like I do.
CAM-o-mile.
I was raised all over the place - spent an equal amount of my childhood in both Detroit and Atlanta with a couple years in Chicago for good measure.
KA-muh-mile.
The “muh” isn’t really accurate, but it’s as close as I can get with normal characters. Using proper notation, it would be “ka-mə-mīl”, I think.
I’m from central Louisiana.
Same here. North New Jersey.
CAM-o-meal.
South Carolina
Wow. In my travels around the U.S., I’ve never heard it pronounced any way other than KAM-uh-meal (that “uh” is more of a schwa sound).
I live in Montana.
Huh. Apparently, I am the only native Ohioan who says “kam-oh-mile” rather than “meal”–but then I haven’t lived there in over 20 years, and perhaps picked up the “mile” pronunciation somewhere else since. Here in Maryland? Denver? The UK?
Same, central California.
A quick glance over the thread reveals that “mile” seems to be more common for British English and some parts of the southern US, while “meal” is favored in most of the US. I know it’s a very small sample size, but it’s interesting.
That’s mine. Midwest prairie raised.
Same, but mom was a Hoosier.
Ditto that. Wisconsin born and bred.
Same here. (South Louisiana)
Kam - oh/uh - Somewhere between -meal and -mill.
Tennessee mostly. Virginia is creeping up in the ranks. Florida, Texas, and New York besides.
Parents from Ohio and Michigan.
/kam-ai-mēl/ is probably the “correct” pronunciation.
Unsurprisingly I pronounce it like fellow New Englanders CairoCarol and Annie-Xmas do. I’m a little surprised, however, that some would pronounce the “h” like in the examples the OP offers.