xkcd

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submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/xkcd

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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

[–] abouttocomealive 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

One is Akansas

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

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

[–] NeoNachtwaechter 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But where is Are-Cannot-Saw?

[–] badcommandorfilename 5 points 1 year ago

Next to Coloradon't

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

One has no R

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

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

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

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

[–] misophist 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Today I learned the native language was French!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year 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.