Apparently there is a lot of confusion on whether or not the final "s" is part of the pronunciation of our great state's name. Well do not worry because our state government resolved the issue sometime ago by adding this to the Arkansas code . We have on the books that the final "s" in Arkansas is not to be pronounced and that the correct pronunciation is Ar-Kan-Saw (please not Ar-Kansas). So now we all know (if you did not already) that there is an official, government endorsed way to pronounce Arkansas. Thanks legislature, and citizens remember: 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 an innovation to be discouraged. |