Vice president Kamala Harris speaks from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington (Picture: AP)
CAM-el-uh. KUH-mahl-uh. Karmel-UH. None of this is correct. Kamala Harris is no stranger to having her name mispronounced.
The US vide president is running for the Democratic nomination after Joe Biden announced on Sunday he was stepping aside.
She has a long to-do list ahead of the presidential election in November – one of them being to get people to pronounce her name correctly.
When Harris ran for the US Senate in 2016, she shared a campaign video on then Twitter that showed children showing how to properly say her first name.
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‘It’s not CAM-EL-UH. It’s not KUH-MAHL-UH. It’s not KARMEL-UH,’ they explained.
It is ‘COM-mah-la,’ with emphasis on the first syllable.
When pronounced correctly, the vice president’s name sounds like comma-la.
The video started doing the rounds on social media again after almost half of the speakers who used her first name at last week’s Republican National Convention got it wrong.
Whether on purpose or not, mispronouncing Harris’ name is often seen as a sign of disrespect.
Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue went a step further, openly mocking her name by likening it to the Spanish phrase ‘que mala’, translating to ‘so bad’.
Last week also saw Chris Sununu, New Hampshire’s governor, being questioned by a Politico reporter if he was doing it deliberately.
Journalist Eugene Daniels said: ‘I hear Republicans often mispronouncing vice president Kamala Harris’ name.
‘You have done it a few times. Is it a tactic? Or is it just a tough name to pronounce?’
Sununu was seen looking visibly taken aback at the suggestion before asserting it was a mistake.
‘If I’m pronouncing her name wrong, I apologize,’ he said. ‘I say Kuh-MAL-a Harris I am honestly telling you I would not disrespect someone by pronouncing their name wrong.’
Daniels took the opportunity to educate Sununu telling him, ‘Comma-la. Comma-la. Comma-la. Do not apologise to me – it is not my name.’
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