Why the -kansas Part of Arkansas Is Pronounced Differently Than the State of Kansas

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Megan from Louisville calling in. How are you?

Hi, Megan. I’m doing well. And what are you calling us about?

I’m calling because I was listening to your program on the radio last week, and it just got me thinking about a childhood memory of when I was learning about the states. And they were talking about Arkansas and Kansas. And I could not get over the fact, you know, when you’re a kid, everyone’s telling you rules. I could not get over the fact that they were spelled pretty much the same, which is Ark in front of Kansas or R in front of Kansas, but you don’t pronounce them the same.

So it’s not like you say Kansaw or Arkansas. And I just piqued my curiosity and I’m wondering where that comes from.

Oh, this is a good one. And you’re not the first person to ask this. It’s been a common question since those two states were named. But I do want to point out that the Arkansas River is sometimes pronounced as the Arkansas River, depending where you are in Kansas and Colorado.

That’s wild.

Yeah, and there’s a reason for this. Both of these states get their name from the same Siouxan tribe. So they were named for the Kansas people, K-N-S-A. But the name of Kansas came through English-speaking people, and the name of Arkansas came through French-speaking people. And so the French would not pronounce that final S.

So we, in our weird Anglophone kind of interpretation, we are rendering the French pronunciation of those letters in an Anglophone way, but still retaining that silent final letter like the French would. Of course, it comes down to original tribe names, which we, of course, unfortunately are not taught in school. I wish the teacher would have answered that question and could have learned something.

That’s really interesting.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So that’s the gist of it. The Kansas tribe, the name is sometimes said to mean the people of the South Wind, and they were throughout the Mississippi River Valley.

Wow. I have a whole respect for it now. It used to just irk me, but now I have total respect for it.

Well, sometimes anytime we’re irked by language, there’s almost always something interesting happening, and we can just set that irk aside and go for the interesting stuff.

Well, it’s just that thing where it’s spelled the same, but it’s pronounced differently, like Polish and Polish or resume and resume. You know, it’s just, it’s gotta be really hard. I’m learning a different language right now, which is I’m struggling with, but I can’t imagine trying to learn English.

Oh yeah. English is a real bear. I don’t know how it ever became any kind of lingua franca with the mess that it is.

What are you learning? What language are you learning?

Spanish. It’s like my third attempt. I’m very lucky to be able to travel there sometimes, and people are always so gracious with me and let me practice and help me out, and I’m just trying to get better at it so I can talk with people here and when I travel better.

That’s wonderful.

Yeah, we highly recommend everyone learn any amount of a language they can. Even just a few words is a start. My old brain is struggling, but I believe in neuroplasticity, so I’m hoping it’ll just eventually work it out.

Well, thank you for taking care of my curiosity and getting to the root of it. I appreciate it.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Bye, Megan. Leave us a voicemail anytime, 877-929-9673.