arKANsas (P.S.)

[Herb Stahlke]

And would, of course, rhyme with Mackinac.

Herb

On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 10:51 AM, Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at wayne.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: arKANsas (P.S.)
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>
> But I don't see. The last 'a' of ArkansAs is a low back rounded vowel in my dialect (rhymes with 'law')--and a quick hallway check shows that it has the same vowel in Michigan (my dialect is a weird hybrid British/Canadian).
> Of course, for 'awe-droppers' it will continue to rhyme with 'law', but will now have the same vowel (mutatis the necessary mutandes,as Paul Kiparsky used to say, not followed by an /r/).
> That is, phonemically /ark at nsa/ for 'awe-droppers' and /ark at nsO/ for those of us with too many low vowels.
>
> Geoff
>
> Geoffrey S. Nathan
> Faculty Liaison, C&IT
> and Associate Professor, Linguistics Program
> +1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)
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>
> ----- "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>
>> From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 10:31:00 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
>> Subject: Re: arKANsas (P.S.)
>>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: arKANsas (P.S.)
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> At 12:53 AM -0400 5/19/10, Baker, John M. wrote:
>> >  >From
>> http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/ArkansasCode/0/1-4-105.htm:
>> >
>> >
>> >1-4-105. Pronunciation of state name.
>> >
>> >    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.
>>
>> Oops, I see what you're getting at.  Nobody pronounces the last two
>> "a"s of Arkansas "with the Italian sound".  The first one, yes.
>> Guess the legislators got carried away.
>>
>> LH
>>
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