WEBVTT - Why Isn't Arkansas Pronounced 'Ar-Kansas'?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vogebam here. Imagine you're an intrepid seventeenth century French

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<v Speaker 1>explorer transversing the expansive wilderness of Louisiana a k a

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<v Speaker 1>New France, a territory spanning the entire Mississippi basin from

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<v Speaker 1>modern day Louisiana through Illinois and northward into Canada. You

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<v Speaker 1>encounter dozens of native tribes, each with its own language

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<v Speaker 1>or dialect, and you attempt to record their names in

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<v Speaker 1>your journal as best you can. This imperfect system is

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<v Speaker 1>how English speaking Americans eventually arrived at many of their

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<v Speaker 1>names for Native American tribes, including the Dakota, Iowa, Alabama, Nebraska, Ottawa, Chippewa,

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<v Speaker 1>and Tuscaloosa. I think of it as a centuries long

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<v Speaker 1>game of multi lingual telephone. These words evolved from their

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<v Speaker 1>original pronunciation into a French approximation, and finally into an

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<v Speaker 1>anglicized mangling of the French, which brings us to the

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<v Speaker 1>legitimately confusing question of how the state of Kansas spelled

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<v Speaker 1>k A N S A S could be pronounced Kansas,

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<v Speaker 1>while the nearby state of Arkansas spelled a r K

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<v Speaker 1>A N S A S is pronounced Arkansas. This question

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<v Speaker 1>was a subject of a pamphlet published way back in

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<v Speaker 1>one titled Fixing the Pronunciation of the name Arkansas. The booklet,

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<v Speaker 1>written by members of the Arkansas Historical Society, was meant

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<v Speaker 1>to provide historical context to a resolution passed by the

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<v Speaker 1>Arkansas General Assembly declaring the one and only correct pronunciation

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<v Speaker 1>of Arkansas to quote, it should be pronounced in three syllables,

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<v Speaker 1>with the final S silent the A, and each syllable

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<v Speaker 1>with the Italian sound and the accent on the first

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<v Speaker 1>and last syllables, being the pronunciation formally universally and now

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<v Speaker 1>still most commonly used. Apparently, what happened was that some

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<v Speaker 1>egg heads at Webster's Dictionary had changed the entry for

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<v Speaker 1>Arkansas to include a new pronunciation note are Kansas formerly Arkansas,

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<v Speaker 1>and that sent red blooded Arkansas ins into a lexigraphical tizzy.

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<v Speaker 1>The authors of the Arkansas Historical Society pamphlet called it

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<v Speaker 1>a vicious pronunciation with no basis of reason, authority, or

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<v Speaker 1>prior polite usage. And moreover, people who said are Kansas,

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<v Speaker 1>according to the pamphlet quote failed to consider that they

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<v Speaker 1>would thus render ridiculous, a name highly poetiquet. It sounds

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<v Speaker 1>and associated with the grandest memories of the past, from

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<v Speaker 1>the days of Marquette downward, Marquette being the French explorer

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<v Speaker 1>Jacques Marquette. The Arkansas Historical Society members argued that the

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<v Speaker 1>divergent pronunciations of Arkansas and Kansas stem from similar French

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<v Speaker 1>names given to two different Native American tribes. A Sioux

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<v Speaker 1>tribe lived near the modern day Kansas River, and early

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<v Speaker 1>French explorers called them by an approximation of their name,

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<v Speaker 1>which sounded to French ears like Kansas. The second tribe,

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<v Speaker 1>the Quapa, lived further southwest along the modern day Arkansas River.

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<v Speaker 1>For reasons unknown, even though the Quapa spoke a Suan language,

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<v Speaker 1>the French called them by an Algonquin name Arkansas. Those names,

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<v Speaker 1>as the French rendered them, look and sound very similar,

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<v Speaker 1>but again for reasons unknown, early French explorers wrote out

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<v Speaker 1>the associated place names very differently. Explorer on Rijotel, writing

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<v Speaker 1>in seven wrote out the word for the area around

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<v Speaker 1>modern day Arkansas a C C A N C Sidilla

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<v Speaker 1>E A S, and he spelled Kansas C H A

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<v Speaker 1>N Z E S by seventeen twenty three, Arkansas was

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<v Speaker 1>routinely spelled the way it is today, but as late

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<v Speaker 1>as eighteen o five, French photographer Perin the Lack spelled

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<v Speaker 1>Kansas k A N c E with a grave accent s.

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<v Speaker 1>Clearly at some point in R was added to the

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<v Speaker 1>Algonquin name Arkansas. One theory mentioned in a nine article

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<v Speaker 1>in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly is that hunters from the

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<v Speaker 1>tribe used a particularly cool bow, and the French word

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<v Speaker 1>for bow is arc. Other French explorers called the Arkansas

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<v Speaker 1>River the river of arcs or bends for its curvy course,

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<v Speaker 1>so either admiration for the weapon or the term for

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<v Speaker 1>the river might have influenced the French pronunciation of the name,

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<v Speaker 1>which brings us to the pronunciation question. The eighty one

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<v Speaker 1>Arkansas Historical Society pamphlet concluded that eventually colonists in Kansas

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<v Speaker 1>chose to follow the standard English pronunciation, marked by a

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<v Speaker 1>hard A sound and vocalizing the final s, while Arkansas

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<v Speaker 1>colonists stuck with the original French pronunciation with a long

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<v Speaker 1>romance language ah sound. They noted that in the past,

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<v Speaker 1>Arkansas was sometimes spelled A R K N S A

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<v Speaker 1>W including in the eighteen peace treaty between the United

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<v Speaker 1>States and the Quapa, and they said that the inclusion

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<v Speaker 1>of the s at the end of the modern spell

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<v Speaker 1>was likely a product of pluralization. If the tribe was

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<v Speaker 1>called the Akinsaw, then multiple members of the tribe were

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<v Speaker 1>the Atkins Saws. But since the final S is silent

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<v Speaker 1>in French, all that's left is the awe sound. In

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<v Speaker 1>eighty the Arkansas Historical Society wrote the iconic American poet

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<v Speaker 1>Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for his take on the pronunciation question.

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<v Speaker 1>He replied, I confess I prefer the sound of Arkansas

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<v Speaker 1>as being more musical than Arkansas. Case closed. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>was written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang

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<v Speaker 1>for iHeart Media and How Stuff Works. For more on

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<v Speaker 1>this and lots of other topics, visit our home planet,

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<v Speaker 1>how Stuff Works dot com.