SATURDAY: How does Harris pronounce her name?

SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 2024

Linguistics professor explains:  The irony lies in the author's identity line. 

The author in question is John McWhorter. Beneath his latest column for the New York Times, his identity line says this:

John McWhorter is an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University. He is the author of “Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now and Forever” and, most recently, “Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America."

He's a professor of linguistics! His column appeared on August 1—and it starts like this:

What Trump Means When He Mispronounces ‘Kamala’

Since Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Donald Trump has been invoking her name a lot. Well, something close to her name. Harris pronounces it “KA-ma-la.” Trump, however, has often been pronouncing it “Ka-MA-la” or even “KUH-ma-la.” He did it again yesterday at the convention of the National Association of Black Journalists...

We won't even finish that first paragraph. Instead, we take you directly to this:

Is that really the way Harris pronounces her name? Because as we've noted in the past, she made a point of addressing this question in her 2019 book, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.

She addressed this point right in the preface to that book. As we've noted in the past, this is what she said:

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

[...] 

This book is not meant to be a policy platform, much less a fifty-point plan. Instead, it is a collection of ideas and viewpoints and stories, from my life and from the lives of the many people I’ve met along the way.

Just two more things to mention before we get started:

First, my name is pronounced “comma-la,” like the punctuation mark. It means “lotus flower,” which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom.

That's what Harris said about the way her name is pronounced. Even as he comments on Trump's nefarious motives, McWhorter seems to say something different.

Or does he? How would a range of people pronounce that first syllable—"KA?" Is it possible that different people would pronounce it different ways?

At any rate:

However various people might pronounce the name in question based only on McWhorter's transcription, would anyone end up with "comma-la?" We'll guess that no one would!

(In short, she says puh-TAY-to; he says puh-TAH-to. Trump says whatever he wants.)

As a general matter, we tend to agree with McWhorter's work. Watching him on interview shows, it seems obvious that he's a good, decent person.

That said, McWhorter is a linguistics professor. That seems to lend a bit of irony to this latest discussion.

McWhorter is a linguistics professor—and he writes for Blue America's most highly regarded newspaper. Presumably, some editor at that newspaper read his column before it was placed in print.

Say her name, the sages have said. Given the ways of our floundering culture, that's easier said than done!