Wednesday, January 14, 2009

It rhymes with Sarah

OK, I'll admit it, I had American Idol on last night. I wasn't really watching it entirely, but I had it on while I was doing some other stuff.

They have a new judge on this season. Her name is Kara DioGuardi. It's nice to see another Kara once in a while, because most people have never met a Kara before. And the more difficult thing about that is so many people have no idea how to say the name...either Kara like Sarah, or Kara like car-ruh.

During last night's Idol, they actually had a piece on there about how to say her name, because people were using all types of pronunciations...including Simon who has no clue about how to say her name.

If a person is English or from the Eastern US, they usually call me "car-ruh", and it's about 50-50 on the rest of the world saying it right.

Another major issue is that there are plenty of Kara's that actually go by the "car-ruh" version.

The thing is, people don't say Sara as "Sar-ruh"...they say "Sair-ruh", so I have never understood why people continue to use "car-ruh". I mean, even Karen uses the "air" sound instead of the "are" sound.

Anyway, Kara DioGuardi was used to all different pronunciations as you could see her blow off people saying her name wrong. We'll see if or when Simon decides to finally use the right pronunciation...that is, of course, if I am watching it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

>The thing is, people don't say
>Sara as "Sar-ruh"...they say "Sair-ruh",

That's different because Sara is a short form of Sarah. So people are used to pronouncing it that way.

>so I have never understood why
>people continue to use "car-ruh".

I guess they assume it's like Tara, Lara, Mara, etc.

I've met a few Karas, and AFAI can remember they have all used the "car-ruh" form.

>I mean, even Karen uses the "air"
>sound instead of the "are" sound.

I've never met a Karen that pronounced it that way. They've all used the flat 'A' as in cat.

I guess it depends on where you are from. Pronouncing Kara your way would be extremely unusual in my part of the world. :)

Kara said...

Well, New Zealand and Australia both have their base in British English, more so than American English, so from what I have heard from my friends down under, they have a hard time with my name as well.

The thing I can't figure out though, is why many British, Australian, and New Zealand singers sound more American when they sing than when they talk?

Anonymous said...

Totally out of the thread, but this friday brings Kara Thrace back to our screens :)

Yay!
Eileen.

Anonymous said...

> The thing I can't figure out
> though, is why many British,
> Australian, and New Zealand
> singers sound more American
> when they sing than when they
> talk?

100 years of cultural imperialism? :)

Serious though, I think the act and mechanics of singing tends to soften the sharp edges of accents, bringing them more towards each other.