No one is going to point how he pronounces the name of his state? are-Kansas? All the natives I know from there pronounce it are-can-saw. Is this some kind of shebolith?
He said ar-can-saw for the name of the state, but he referred to the citizens as ar-kan-sans, which from a quick search online seems to be the preferred pronunciation.
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Thank you! Good catch!
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He pronounces the name of the people who live in his state are-Kansasans. I bet he calls the state are-can-saw just like verybody else does.
Besides, would you call the residents of the state are-can-sawn-ians?
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Arkanseers.
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Residents of are-can-saw? Maybe it’s just my computer programming brain, but I never saw a need for state level collective nouns.
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As an Arkansan currently living in another state, there are basically two schools of thought amongst its citizens on what to call ourselves. The generally used term is “Arkansans” but a lot of people hate the link to Kansas and the jarring change in pronunciation and prefer the term “Arkansawyers.” The split on this is about 50/50 and most feel very passionately about the way it should be pronounced to the point that I’m surprised a state civil war over it hasn’t happened.
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I understand they had quite the adventures with the Arkanfinns back in the day.
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It’s quite possible he might have grown up outside of Arkansas, where designations like the Arkansas Rivers are actually pronounced ar-KANsas.
Accepted BoingBoing practice is “Arkansopodes”.
Oh, and welcome to BoingBoing.
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This disagreement has a history as old as the state itself, but the state’s General Assembly did pass an official resolution on the matter. From the Arkansas Secretary of State’s website:
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