Is it against the law to mispronounce Arkansas?

Question

There are many sources that claim that it is illegal to pronounce Arkansas incorrectly and you can be fined for doing so.

My favorite law is one designed to get Northerners into trouble. That's right folks, if you mispronounce Arkansas (Ar-kan-saw) you're in for a fine or jail time.

^{http://littlerock.about.com/cs/factsfun/a/strangelaws.htm}

It’s strictly prohibited to pronounce “Arkansas” incorrectly

^{http://www.dumblaws.com/laws/united-states/arkansas}

Is this true? Is it mentioned in Arkansas State Laws?

_{As a subnote, Wikipedia mentions the below:}

_{In 1881, the pronunciation of Arkansas with the final "s" being silent was made official by an act of the state legislature after a dispute arose between Arkansas's then-two U.S. senators as one favored the pronunciation as /ˈɑrkənsɔː/ AR-kən-saw while the other favored /ɑrˈkænzəs/ ar-KAN-zəs.}

Even if such a law were on the books, it would likely be held unconstitutional and thus technically, not a law in the U.S. — RBarryYoung, Oct 23 '14 at 15:10
Cf.: Just because "New York City" is the official name, you won't get arrested for calling it "The Big Apple". — Hagen von Eitzen, Oct 23 '14 at 18:19
@AndrewMedico How would this be a clear 1st amendment violation? The 1st amendment protects your right to be *able* to say what you want, but you are still fully responsible for the consequences of your words, such as penalties for breaking laws (however dumb they may be). — Zack, Oct 24 '14 at 21:54
Your question rhymes! Someone should write a limerick: I've heard it said that in Arkansas/ Pronouncing it badly breaks the law/... — CJ Dennis, Oct 25 '14 at 00:52
@Zack The whole _point_ of the First Amendment is to severely restrict legal consequences for speech; if it's a criminal offense to say something, you're _not_ considered able to say it. Preventing speech in the first place (i.e. as opposed to the question of what legal consequences are allowed) is just a narrow subset of First Amendment law, not the whole thing; there's probably more that's been written about whether a vague law causes self-censorship to avoid violating it than about prior restraint of speech. — cpast, Oct 25 '14 at 05:07
@RBarryYoung during and after WWI, there were bans against teaching foreign languages and the like. Those bans were not [defeated](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_v._Nebraska) under the first amendment, but under the 14th. — Andrew Grimm, Oct 25 '14 at 09:22
@AndrewGrimm: I think that's a false dichotomy. Broadly speaking, the Fourteenth Amendment is what requires states to respect the same sorts of freedoms that the Federal Government does. The *text* of the First Amendment only refers to Congress, but in light of the Fourteenth Amendment, I think it's quite reasonable in ordinary discourse to say that a state law violates the First Amendment. (And anyway, RBarryYoung just said "unconstitutional", which certainly covers both!) — ruakh, Oct 25 '14 at 18:02
In most states, it's against the law to even **mention** Arkansas! — Carl Witthoft, Oct 25 '14 at 20:14
All, it should be noted that since Arkansas is a *political* entity, the way it is pronounced, especially intentional mispronunciation, could legitimately be political speech, the central thing the first admendment has always been held to protect. — RBarryYoung, Oct 26 '14 at 17:22

score 65 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

65

The name, Arkansas, is a French pronunciation of a Siouxan word meaning "land of downriver people". It is pronounced:

/ˈɑrkənsɔː/

ar-kən-saw

In 1881, the Arkansas General Assembly passed Concurrent Resolution No. 4.

The resolution was further modified in 1947 as Arkansas Code 1 April 105, and reads thusly:

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.

The full explanation of the debate leading up to this resolution can be read here.

Essentially, this resolution was just to make the proper pronunciation "official". You'll notice that the language of the resolution uses words like "should" and "discouraged", not "must". So no, it's not illegal to pronounce Arkansas incorrectly.

Both Arkansas and Kansas derive their names from the Native-American Kansa tribe (pronounced as Kan-SAW). Kansas is an English spelling of the tribe's name, leading to the current pronunciation. Arkansas is french, and the trailing "s" is therefore silent. This is why the official pronunciation of Arkansas sounds more like the original Native American word.

edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

Community

1

answered Oct 23 '14 at 03:51

TonyArra

665
6
7

According to that definition, i.e. "the "a" in each syllable with the Italian sound" and "the second syllable with the sound of 'a' in 'man'", the 3rd syllable should be a hard/flat 'a' (with a silent 's'), like 'ər-kən-sə'. – ChrisW Oct 23 '14 at 10:32
Does it really matter whether the wording is "should" rather than "must" or "shall"? I'm pretty sure that even if it says "must" or "shall", you can't be punished unless the law explicitly says so (e.g., "... punishable by a fine not to exceed $xxxx...") – Brian Oct 23 '14 at 22:02
5

@Brian I believe that it does matter. It is not necessary for a written law to have the punishment defined within the text of said law. In such cases, the punishment is determined either by an auxiliary law written specifically to define punishments for certain types of crimes, or by a judge using his own judgement and precedent. – TonyArra Oct 24 '14 at 07:03
1

So how do you actually pronounce the demonym "Arkansan"? – Saibot Oct 25 '14 at 00:35
@ChrisW An Italian "a" is ɑ in IPA (like the 'a' in 'father'), not ə. /ˈɑrkənsɔː/ is just a result of the emphasis on the first and last syllables. – TonyArra Oct 25 '14 at 02:10
1

@Saibot According to the link that I posted "People who live in or who come from Arkansas, are referred to as Arkansans (Ar'kansans'). This term is a throwback to an earlier pronunciation of the state name as Ar'Kansas'" – TonyArra Oct 25 '14 at 02:10
@TonyArra I thought people pronounced its last syllable like "law" (or like "lore" without the "r"). And modern French, at least, uses hard/flat 'a's like the 'a' in "hat": so "arkansa!" – ChrisW Oct 25 '14 at 02:23
@TonyArra Do you have any 'legal' citation for the first statement in your answer, that using the IPA alphabet it's supposed to be pronounced `/ˈɑrkənsɔː/` or `ar-kən-saw`? – ChrisW Oct 25 '14 at 02:25
2

@ChrisW in the court proceedings that I linked to in my first link, they make mention of this pronunciation numerous times: "Throughout all these States it is to this day pronounced by all the old inhabitants and their children in three syllables, with the broad Italian sound of "a," and the final 's' " silent, as if written Ar-kan-saw." The IPA wasn't invented until 7 years after these proceedings, and admittedly, the way that the resolution wrote it is a bit unclear. It's a bit of a moot point to the question of its legality, but it's clear from the link what pronunciation was intended. – TonyArra Oct 25 '14 at 08:44

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

If this was a valid law, it should be possible to point to a successful prosecution made under its provisions. There hasn't been one.

The reason this myth has grown legs is because of an article introduced into the Arkansas legal code in 1881. The article in question, which I have reproduced below, is taken from Lexisnexis.

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. 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.

HISTORY: Concurrent Resolution No. 4, Acts 1881, p. 216; C. & M. Dig., § 9181a; Pope's Dig., § 11867; A.S.A. 1947, § 5-102.

Note that the provision in the code merely describes the unfavoured pronunciation as "an innovation to be discouraged". That doesn't make that pronunciation illegal — it merely states the official opinion and preference of the state legislature at the time this article was included in the Arkansas legal code.

It may also be of interest that in the neighbouring state of Kansas (where I actually live), there are several place names that include the word Arkansas, like Arkansas City. Here, those place names are actually pronounced as written (though Arkansas City is more often than not simply shortened to 'Ark City' in speech, which renders the pronunciation of the end of the word a moot point).

[Welcome to Skeptics!](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1505/welcome-to-new-users) Your first paragraph has a couple of issues: (1) It isn't a safe conclusion that a law isn't valid until their has been a successful prosecution. By that argument, no first prosecution could ever be made for a new law, because the new law would not yet be valid. (2) You haven't [provided a reference](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/5) to support your claim that there have been no such prosecutions. — Oddthinking, Nov 10 '14 at 13:02

Is it against the law to mispronounce Arkansas?

2 Answers2