From the Wiki article on Arkansas
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas>
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Etymology
The name “Arkansas” derives from the same root as the name for the state
of Kansas. The Kansa tribe of Native Americans are closely associated
with the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains. The word “Arkansas” itself is
a French pronunciation (“Arcansas”) of a Quapaw (a related “Kaw” tribe)
word, akakaze, meaning “land of downriver people” or the Sioux word
akakaze meaning “people of the south wind”. The pronunciation of
Arkansas was made official by an act of the state legislature in 1881,
after a dispute between two U.S. Senators from Arkansas. One wanted to
pronounce the name /ɑrˈkænzəs/ ar-KAN-zəs and the other wanted
/ˈɑrkənsɔː/ AR-kən-saw.
In 2007, the state legislature passed a non-binding resolution declaring
the possessive form of the state's name to be Arkansas's, which has been
followed increasingly by the state government
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You have to recall that, along with assimilation of words and
pronunciations from many European (and other) languages, the American
additions to English vocabulary often include words (or distortions of
same) from many different American Indian languages. In this case it
took the French to mess it up first. :-) I'm sure there must be
influences of Māori place names and other vocabulary in New Zealand.
Chuck Norcutt
On 5/3/2012 3:57 AM, Brian Swale wrote:
> Paul Laughlin wrote
>>
>> Try the Texan pronunciation of Pedernales, as in the River. It becomes
>> perdinalice. LOL Paul in Portland OR
>
> I have never understood why the USA pronunciation of Arkansas goes
> Ar kan saw rather than as spelled .... Ar kan sas (as in sassy)
>
> Weird ... (ie how bizarre is that ?? ) ::-)
>
> Brian Swale.
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