Kamala Harris: How to pronounce her name correctly?

The Anglo-Saxon world has always made fun of the fact that we Germans are failing at the Ti-Äjtsche. It’s not for nothing that in this country it’s called “Drive in” and not “Drive through” as in the original (in the USA that would be difficult for insurance reasons). We just take our tongues, which are used to hard sounds, into consideration.

In the case of the designated Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, however, it is not just the ignorant and/or overwhelmed Europeans who are being embarrassed. Many Americans also don’t really know how to pronounce the name of their potential next head of state. You can read whether Harris will prevail against Trump in the US election in our news blog about the US election results.

And because most people are less familiar with phonetic symbols than Donald Trump is with facts, here is an instruction manual.

Of course, Harris has known for a long time that she is asking too much of many US voters with every first name except Jill, Hillary or – God forbid – Karen. When she ran for the Senate in 2016, then Attorney General of California (a hybrid between Attorney General and Attorney General), she made a verbal offer. In a still pretty golden campaign ad titled “It’s Kamala!” Children explain how the slow-witted adults pronounce Harris’s name correctly – and how not. Not “Kämäla”, “Kuhmalah” or “Kamella”.

But “Commala”. The prefix pronounced like “comma”. Alternatively, the name can be easily divided into a longer “Kama” and a short “la”.

If this is still too difficult for you, I recommend the following mnemonic: Harris combs her hair – she’s Kammala Harris. Not perfect, but closer than most of the variants floating around the internet.

By the way, the name Kamala comes from ancient Indian Sanskrit, as she explains in her 2019 biography “The Truths We Hold”. The Flippers already knew what it meant in 1989: “I called you a lotus flower,” says the breaker track by the German Beatles. The delicate pink aquatic plant is considered sacred in the predominantly Hindu subcontinent and stands for creativity, loyalty and even the purity of the heart. So no pressure. Harris’ mother is from India, her father from Jamaica. The two emigrants met in the USA in 1960.

That would be settled once and for all: at least until Donald Trump thinks of a poisonous but more catchy nickname for his new opponent. “Sleepy Joe” was really catchy.

Just for the sake of our tongues, let’s hope Harris doesn’t make Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg her running mate. “Buuhttedschedsch”…