How to say: Barack Obama
11:38 UK time, Tuesday, 23 January 2007
A weekly guide to the words and names in the news from Catherine Sangster of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Pronunication Unit.
This week's pronunciation is , who seems certain to run for the U.S. Presidency in 2008. His name should be pronounced buh-RAAK oh-BAA-muh. When he first came to prominence, there was some disagreement about his first name, which was also sometimes pronounced buh-RACK or even BARR-uhk, but our recommendation is based on the pronunciation he uses himself - he can be heard saying his own first name .
(For a guide to our phonetic pronunciations, click here.)
The 
