Kamala Harris’s Victory Speech - American Intonation & Rhythm Analysis

Hey everyone, it's Hadar.

And this is an impromptu speech analysis, which means it wasn't planned.

Because I wanted to celebrate this historic moment where it's the first

time in the history of the United States, where a woman was elected to be the

vice president of the United States.

And that is huge and very inspiring.

So, I watched the speech that she gave and I wanted to take a small part of

it and analyze it with you together.

Because what better way there is to celebrate a person's words than

to repeat them again and again?

So I'm going to play it and then we'll repeat it together, and

I'll tell you what to focus on.

Okay?

Let's listen.

"But while I may be the first woman in this office..."

But while I may be the first woman in this office.

But while I may be the first woman in this office.

'First' - notice how she lifted "first woman in this office", right?

So, everything's kind of flat to stress the word "first".

Why?

You'll see, in a second.

And what does she do?

How does she stress that word?

She goes up in pitch.

She is all the way down here, "but while I may be the first woman in this

office" - goes back to the same tone.

"But while I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last".

Boom.

"I will not be the last".

"not", "last" - these are the key words here.

"I will not be the last".

"I will not be the last".

So even though the pitch doesn't change much here, she uses length to emphasize

those words and to move the idea forward, which is what happens in the speech.

She keeps moving the idea forward using the key words: "first", "not last", right?

If we only take those key words, we can make sense of

what it is that she's saying.

"I will not be the last".

"Because every little girl..."

"Because" - very reduced; "because", cause that's not important, so we

practically don't hear any vowels here.

"Because every little girl".

Now, see how she skipped the word "little".

Not that it's not important, it's not as important as "girl", right?

Even though it's like a word with mostly consonants, she still stressed

it, she still dragged it: "every little girl", "girl", "girl".

Notice the transition between the 'g' and the 'ir' and the 'l'.

"girl".

"Because every little girl".

"...watching tonight..."

"Watching tonight".

"Watching tonight".

Now, she starts emphasizing almost every single word.

And that's what we do in speeches when we want to get to the main point.

You start slowing down, taking more pauses, and almost stressing every

single word, except for the function words - the words that don't matter.

"Watching tonight", notice what you did here with 'tonight', where

the T is aspirated - 'tonight'.

And the final T is kinda like swallowed or nasalized almost.

"Watching tonight", 'tonight', they don't sound the same.

"...sees that this is a country of possibilities."

'sees' - high E, 'sees'.

Again, she takes her time: "...that this is a country of possibilities"

- punching the stressed words.

"that this", so 'that' is short, "that this is a".

'i-zuh', 'i-zuh' - reduced.

"country 'uhv' possibilities", right?

So, 'this', 'country', 'possibilities'.

All the rest of the words, they don't really matter.

They're there, they don't really matter, they're reduced.

"that this is a country of possibilities".

'paa' - A as in 'father', 'possibilities'.

"And to the children..."

"And to the children".

So again, "every little girl", "and to the children" - so

'children' is stressed here.

So she starts with the individual, the 'girl', and then she goes broader - 'to

children', so 'children' is stressed now.

t’th’, t’th’, t’th’; and t’th’, and t’th’, and t’th’.

"And to the children".

So here the pitch is a little higher than 'girl', "every little girl", because

she's starting to build her argument.

And now she goes even one step further: "and to the children", right?

'chil', so the 'ch' is a little longer than usual; and the 'i', which is a short

vowel, is a little longer than usual; and the L is longer: "into the children".

It's kind of like she's bathing in those words to make sure that people hear them.

"to the children".

"...of our country".

"Of our country".

Now, it goes back to that formal, official tone: "of our country".

Again, every word is stressed here except for 'of' - "of our country".

"...regardless of your gender".

"Regardless of your gender".

"regardless" - 'luhs' 'luhs' - schwa - "regardless of your gender".

"of your gender".

'uhv your - it's kind of stressed - gender'.

She didn't say "of your a gender" [with 'gender' unstressed],

she wanted to emphasize this word as well - "of your gender".

"our country has sent you a clear message".

"Our country has sent you a clear message".

'sent you', 'sent you' - also notice the T here, like with...

'tonight' - try to remember what was the word - 'tonight'.

'sen[t] you', 'sen[t] you' - held, held inside the nose in a way.

"...has sent you a CLEAR MESSAGE" - stressed stressed.

"Dream with ambition."

"Dream with ambition": 'with' is reduced, it's less important cause

we have 'dream' and 'ambition' - these are the keywords here.

"Dream with ambition".

Now let's see where that goes.

"lead with conviction".

"Lead with conviction".

So she keeps the rhythm here.

It really kind of like moves the message forward where the rhythm is

the same, right, like short sentences.

"Lead with conviction".

'conviction' - 'k'n' - schwa.

k’n-vik-sh’n.

"...and see yourselves in a way that others may not."

"And see yourselves in a way that others may not".

She has like that tone changes a little bit here.

"And see yourself in a way that others may not" -

still something is coming up, she's not done.

"...simply because they've never seen it before".

Closing.

"Simply because they've never seen it before": that's it, she's closing here.

Right?

And think of what a profound sentence that is, right?

Like, people will always have something to say just because that's how they know

things to be, but it shouldn't change how you operate, how you dream,

the vision that you have for yourself, because their opinions don't matter.

Sounds familiar?

"And see yourself in a way that others may not".

So, you can't define yourself, according to what people think about you or what

people think about what you should do and how you should behave,

simply because they haven't seen it before.

"but know that we will applaud you every step of the way."

And that is it, that is the main point: "and know that we will applaud you

every step of the way", "every step of the way", "every step of the way"

- that's such a good phrase to know.

Okay.

Now let's listen to the whole thing once again, I'm going to play it and you just

follow her words, follow her intonation, follow her rhythm, and follow her courage.

Let's listen.

"But while I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.

Because every little girl watching tonight sees

that this is a country of possibilities.

And to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country

has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction,

and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they've never

seen it before, but know that we will applaud you every step of the way."

So much hope.

And I don't even live in the United States!

Okay, let me know in the comments what you think and how you feel,

and I hope you enjoyed it.

And I will see you in the next video.

Bye.