this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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xkcd

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submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/xkcd
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I have an inkling that the two Arkansas are pronounced differently. "Are-Kansas" and "Are-Can-Saw".

[–] abouttocomealive 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

One is Akansas

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I see that now. I did not see it then.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Are-ken-saw, A-kan-saw and a Kan-sahs

[–] NeoNachtwaechter 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But where is Are-Cannot-Saw?

[–] badcommandorfilename 5 points 11 months ago

Next to Coloradon't

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

One has no R

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I see that now. I did not see it then.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's because Arkansas (ARE-can-saw) retained the native language pronounciation, while Kansas (CAN-zuhs) was Anglicanized.

[–] misophist 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Today I learned the native language was French!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

The word “Arkansas” came from the Quapaw Indians, by way of early French explorers. ... The state’s name has been spelled several ways throughout history. In Marquette and Joliet’s Journal of 1673, the Indian name is spelled AKANSEA. In LaSalle’s map a few years later, it’s spelled ACANSA. A map based on the journey of La Harpe in 1718-1722 refers to the river as the ARKANSAS and to the Indians as LES AKANSAS. In about 1811, Captain Zebulon Pike, a noted explorer, spelled it ARKANSAW.