Is it illegal to say Arkansas wrong?
This law regulates how to say the name Arkansas. It’s a great law. It basically says that a person must pronounce the name of the state in a specific way. You can’t pronounce it ArKansas or Arkansasss.
When did Arkansas change pronunciation?
In 1881, a heated disagreement between the state’s two senators, one who said “arKANzis” and the other who said “ARkansaw,” led to a ruling by the state legislature making the “ARkansaw” pronunciation official. Ever since, Americans have gone along with the s-less, first-syllable-stressed version of Arkansas.
Do you pronounce the L in salmon?
The silent “L,” as in salmon
The Merriam-Webster dictionary, however, has “SAM-un” as the pronunciation for salmon, as does the MacMillan dictionary.
Why is Connecticut pronounced?
This federation was called the Connecticut Compact (Connecticut being the Anglisized form of the name of the river, Quinnitucket). This is evidently the reason why the name Connecticut is spelled one way and pronounced the other, there being a silent “c” in the name.
What do you call people from Connecticut?
According to Webster’s New International Dictionary, 1993, a person who is a native or resident of Connecticut is a “Connecticuter”. There are numerous other terms in print, but not in use, such as: “Connecticotian” – Cotton Mather in 1702.
Why don’t we pronounce the second C in Connecticut?
The original name is from the Mohegan word “quinnitukqut” which means “at the long tidal river.” among thousands) by the English speaking folks of the time and it became Connecticut when spelled but the pronunciation was a little harder to fudge, it seems.
Why is the S silent in Arkansas?
Arkansas was named for the French plural of a Native American tribe, while Kansas is the English spelling of a similar one. Since the letter “s” at the end of French words is usually silent, we pronounce Bill Clinton’s home state “Arkansaw.” The “s” on the end is simply a French addition then and a silent one at that.
Why is C silent in Tucson?
It looks like Connecticut comes from the Algonquian quinnitukqut which looks like it’s pronounced almost exactly the same. Tucson, on the other hand, apparently comes from Chuk Shon which is from the O’odham language, the silence of the C being added later.
How is C pronounced in English?
In English the letter ‘c‘ is mostly pronounced as a /k/ sound. We can also pronounce ‘c‘ as an /s/ sound.
Words containing the letter ‘c‘ pronounced as /k/
pronunciation | why? |
---|---|
cut | It’s not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’. |
David Nilsen is the former editor of Fourth & Sycamore. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. You can find more of his writing on his website at davidnilsenwriter.com and follow him on Twitter as @NilsenDavid.