Arkansas

See also: Arkansas'

English
Map of US highlighting Arkansas

Alternative forms
  • Arkansaw (obsolete, the spelling used when the territory was organized in 1819)

Etymology

From the name of the Arkansas River, from French Arcansas, a (plural) designation of either a Siouan tribe or the Quapaw.[1] This designation is sometimes claimed to derive from a Quapaw word *akakaze (“land of downriver people”) or a Lakota/Dakota word *akakaze (“people of the south wind”); more likely, it derives from a Siouan ethnonym cognate to Kansa (whence also the name of the state of Kansas).[1]

Pronunciation
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈɑɹ.kən.sɔ/
  • (US, now nonstandard in reference to the state) IPA(key): /ɑɹˈkæn.zəs/ (see usage notes)
  • Audio (US)(file)

Proper noun

Arkansas

  1. A state of the United States of America. Postal code: AR, capital: Little Rock.
  2. A river of the United States, tributary to the Mississippi.

Usage notes
  • The pronunciation of the name of the state of Arkansas with a silent final s was made official by an act of the state legislature in 1881, after a dispute arose between the state's two US senators, one of whom favored /ˈɑɹkənsɔ/ and the other of whom favored /ɑɹˈkænzəs/.[2] /ɑɹˈkænzəs/ is still common, especially in Kansas, as a pronunciation of the name of the river.

Derived terms

Translations

See also
  • Appendix:Place names in Arkansas

References
  1. William Bright, Native American Placenames of the United States →ISBN, page 47 (citing personal communication with Robert Rankin)
  2. In 1881, the Arkansas General Assembly passed the following concurrent resolution, now Arkansas Code 1 April 105: "Whereas, confusion of practice has arisen in the pronunciation of the name of our state and it is deemed important that the true pronunciation should be determined for use in oral official proceedings.
    And, whereas, the matter has been thoroughly investigated by the State Historical Society and the Eclectic Society of Little Rock, which have agreed upon the correct pronunciation as derived from history, and the early usage of the American immigrants.
    Be it therefore resolved by both houses of the General Assembly, that the only true pronunciation of the name of the state, in the opinion of this body, is that received by the French from the native Indians and committed to writing in the French word representing the sound. It should be pronounced in three (3) syllables, with the final "s" silent, the "a" in each syllable with the Italian sound, and the accent on the first and last syllables. The pronunciation with the accent on the second syllable with the sound of "a" in "man" and the sounding of the terminal "s" is discouraged by Arkansans."

Anagrams

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English Arkansas.

Proper noun

Arkansas (genitive Arkansas')

  1. Arkansas

German

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /aʁˈkanzas/ (Germanicised; slightly dated in educated speech)
  • IPA(key): /ˈaʁkənˌsɔː/ (approaching English; educated)
  • IPA(key): /aʁˈkɛnzəs/, /əˈkɛnzəs/ (approaching the dated or merely a supposed English pronunciation; proscribed)
  • Audio(file)

Noun

Arkansas n (genitive Arkansas')

  1. Arkansas

Polish

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈar.kan.zas/, /arˈkan.zas/
  • Audio(file)

Proper noun

Arkansas m (indeclinable)

  1. Arkansas (state)

Proper noun

Arkansas f or m (indeclinable)

  1. Arkansas (river)

Further reading

Portuguese

Proper noun

Arkansas m

  1. Arkansas (a state of the United States)

Romanian

Proper noun

Arkansas n

  1. Arkansas (U.S. State)

Spanish

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /arˈkansas/, [arˈkãnsas]

Proper noun

Arkansas m

  1. Arkansas
  • arkansés

See also
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