The Kamala I Know, A Rose By Any Another Pronunciation

-Essay-

CALGARY — Soon after President Joe Biden pulled out of the race for reelection, and Kamala Harris was on the way to wrapping up the Democratic party nomination, Manu Raju, an American journalist of Indian origin, mentioned on CNN that some people were mispronouncing Harris' first name.

People mispronounce names – other people’s or even their own – for a variety of reasons. Typically it happens in all innocence if it's the first time they've heard or read the name, often originating in another country or language than their own.

The rare times someone mispronounces a name on purpose, it's usually in order to disrespect the person. The elder President George Bush would intentionally mispronounce Saddam Hussein’s first name as SADdam, placing the emphasis on the first syllable (with a long a, as in ‘sad’).

Disrespect is also clearly the case when Donald Trump says he “couldn’t care less” if he mispronounces Kamala Harris’ name. His saying ka-MA-la is intentionally insulting, attempting to play into the power dynamics of mispronouncing a name. For it is most often a white person mispronouncing the name of a person of color, or a member of the ruling class or a boss mispronouncing the name of an underling. Rarely is it the other way around. It's a way to exercise authority through active ignorance.

But there are other cases which don't fit into either the case of an innocent mistake or intentional insult. For sometimes people – particularly immigrants – end up mispronouncing their own names. This is often done when theirs is a strange name in the new country, and people are having trouble pronouncing it, or just don’t want to try. In order to fit in or avoid having to constantly correct others, they accept the most common or easiest pronunciation in the new land and run with it.

How to say my name

I’m not a linguist, but having lived half my life in India and half in Canada, both countries where English is one but not the only official language, I can report that the Indian subcontinents other languages don't have the long English a, tend not to place emphasis on a particular syllable, and don’t include a hard t or d.

When I was 31, I moved back to India, and quickly reverted back.

So I've noticed that Indian-American Sanjay Gupta – a renowned neurosurgeon and chief medical correspondent at CNN – pronounces his name on TV as SANjay GupTa – with a long a (as in Sandy) and a hard t (as in Tom). In India, the same name would be pronounced as Sunjay Guptha – with a short a and a soft t.

Or take my first name, Ranjani. When I was a kid living in India, I pronounced it Runjuni because everyone around me did. When I first moved to Canada at the age of eight, I introduced myself with that pronunciation, but nobody got it – and so I began to say my name was RAN-JAN-i. When I was 31, I moved back to India, and quickly reverted back to Runjuni, and all was well.

And now, several decades later, I’m back in Canada. How do I say it? Well, with the confidence that some 1.4 billion people would say my name as Runjuni, I'm sticking with it, and I'll let my Canadian neighbors figure it out!

Does it rhyme with Pamela?

And there's my mother's name. Yes, like the possible first woman president in U.S. history, it's Kamala. As my daughter says, “If Kamala Harris wins, Grandma will never have to spell her name for anyone again.”

All of India, most Indians abroad, and my mom herself pronounce her name as Come-a-la, as in “please come for dinner”. During her working life, the mostly white people in her offices in Edmonton and Calgary pronounced her name as Camel-a (to rhyme with Pamela). She was too shy to correct them.

Now that she’s retired, she’s become Come-a-la again.And if, as Kamala Harris has explained, her name is to be pronounced as Comma-la – as in “put a comma after that word” – so be it.

There can genuinely be different ways to pronounce the same name. And indeed, the same name is sometimes pronounced differently in different cultures, languages, and countries. In English-speaking countries, for instance, "David" has the emphasis on the first syllable, but on the second syllable in Spanish and French-speaking countries. Same thing, by the way, with, er: the Donald.

Coffee cup spelling

Part of me feels strongly that people should only pronounce a name the way it is pronounced in the country where the person originated from. It's a way to honor your parents, and invites you to share their culture and tradition. Other times I think everything – names and pronunciations – is made up anyways so why not say it however you wish. Especially when one arrives in a new world, ready to make a new life, under whatever name you want, spelled and pronounced as you wish. One could adopt a Shakespearean attitude and say that a rose by any other pronunciation would smell as sweet.

So, does it matter how someone pronounces a name? Yes, it does.

Mind you, with the increasing presence of Indians and others of non-European background in the West, as well as the rising confidence of these immigrant communities, the milieu is more welcoming and conducive to saying your exotic name in the original manner. The other day I went to Tim Hortons in Calgary for a coffee. When the nice Indian-origin man behind the counter asked me for my name, I said “Runjuni”. Without having to ask, he spelled out Ranjani correctly on my cup and punched in my order.

So, does it matter how someone pronounces a name? Yes, it does. We should pronounce the name how the person themselves pronounces it or wants it to be pronounced – even if that changes over the course of their lifetime. Even if they are running against you for president.