|
[ Home Page | News | Archive | Books | Buy Stuff | FAQs, etc. ]
From Cecil's Mailbag by the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
Dear Straight Dope:
Why on Earth is Arkansas pronounced
"ark-an-SAW"? --DougGold
SDSTAFF Mac and SDSTAFF Tech reply:
Because, unlike other states (Illinwaw, for instance), the original
French pronunciation stuck.
Of course, as native Kansans will tell you, "Arkansas" is
pronounced ahr-KAN-suz.
Seriously, Arkansas is a French variant of the Siouxian word Quapaw
(also a tribe located in the area around the area where Kansas,
Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas almost meet, and, additionally, a
town in northeastern Oklahoma, between Miami and Baxter Springs,
Kansas). Quapaw means, literally, "downstream people."
How the French got "Arkinsaw" from "Quapaw," on the other hand, is
a mystery to us.
--SDSTAFF Mac and SDSTAFF Tech
Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
Cecil's Mailbag is researched and written by members of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, Cecil's online auxiliary. Although the SDSAB does its best, these articles are edited by Ed Zotti, not Cecil, so accuracywise you'd better keep your fingers crossed.
[ Return to the Mailbag Archive ]
The Straight
Dope / Questions or
comments for Cecil Adams to: cecil@chicagoreader.com
Comments regarding this website to: webmaster@straightdope.c
om
Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Chicago Reader, Inc. All rights
reserved.
No material contained in this site may be republished or reposted
without express written
permission.
The Straight Dope is a registered trademark of Chicago Reader, Inc.