- There is no Kansas in Arkansas: The Origin of Our State Name - About Little Rock
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Arkansas pronunciation historyWhy Arkansas Is Never Pronounced 'Ar-Kansas' | HowStuffWorks - Navigation menu
From the name of the Arkansas River , from French Arcansas , a plural designation of either a Siouan tribe or the Quapaw. Borrowed from English Arkansas. Arkansas genitive Arkansas'. From English Arkansas. Arkansas n proper noun , genitive Arkansas' or with an article Arkansas. The article in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly makes an interesting point, though. The Arkansas legislature made a big deal in about fixing for good the true pronunciation of the state name, emphasizing that all three "a"s should be pronounced "with the Italian sound.
In , the Arkansas Historical Society wrote the iconic American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for his take on the pronunciation question. Case closed. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close.
Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Both truths are worthy of preservation. So, saying Ar-KAN-zuhss does violence to the historical facts. You got that, out-of-towners? That wording can actually be found in Arkansas Code. You also can imagine that mixing French, Quapaw, Algonkian, and ultimately English, must created quite a conglomeration of spellings and pronunciations. Finally, with statehood in , everyone settled on the spelling as "Arkansas.
But, there still was a dispute of how to say it. The story goes that two U. In , the Legislature passed a resolution that the spelling would be "Arkansas" and the pronunciation "Arkansaw. As for what residents of Arkansas call themselves, well, there might still be a little difference of opinion. Yet for many years, folks were proud to call themselves "Arkansawyers," a term I still use myself.
Somehow, the English speakers that took over after the Louisiana Purchase decided to go with a modified French spelling along with a French pronunciation — an s on the page, but not on the tongue. Incidentally, the name Ozark comes from French aux Arcs, short for aux Arcansas.
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