Tamal versus tamale. The argument always comes up around this time of the year across the country as we all eat our body’s worth—at least—of tamales. And it turns out that your stance on the way to properly address a singular form of tamales has a lot more to do with your identity, nostalgia, and tolerance of the evolution of the Spanish language.
I’ve always been of the tamal school of masa thought. And I’m guilty of getting on my high horse and correcting people I thought were mispronouncing it by saying “tamale” in English as though it were singular. In proper Spanish, a tamal is singular, and tamales are plural.
That was until a response to one of my annual #tamalnottamale posts from writer and investigative reporter Aura Bogado made me question everything. She was the first to educate me on the cosmic fallacy of correcting people that say "tamale."
It was a bombshell: In Nahuatl, tamales have always been called "tamali" (singular).
Is it possible that the seemingly bastardized English word for a single tamal has been the correct way to say it all along? Even before linguists could analyze the root of the word or its evolution into the American lexicon?
Tamale, even if it makes you cringe, is not technically wrong. It’s both a bonafide entry in the Oxford English language dictionary and is listed as singular in the Associated Press Stylebook, which is the omnipotent bible journalists strive to follow on a letter-by-letter basis.