You can change the spelling of one word in the English language to match how they are pronounced. What word do you pick?
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Try to pick a word no one else has picked. What word are you respelling?
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Arkinsaw
"Arkansas" and "Kansas" are both from the Osage language, but the former passed through French on its way to English.
i'm from somewhere in europe and always wondered why you guys would pronounce those two so different!
America has a lot of place names that come from Native American / First Nations languages; but they also come via different European languages.
And some of those names are actually words that refer to a different Native group. "Arkansas" and "Kansas" are from the Osage word for the Quapaw people. The name of the Snake River between Oregon and Idaho is a translation of the name that Plains people used to refer to the Shoshone: they were the "snake people" and that wasn't a compliment.
I've heard that, but "Ar Kan Saw" is nothing like how a French person would pronounce "Arkansas"
That is interesting. Do you have a source?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas
In Spanish they do rhyme and their endings are pronounced the exact same, as in Kansas. I was greatly puzzled when I discovered that the French managed to mangle the name Arkansas that badly back in the day
Brit here, I only realised a couple of years ago that the Arkansaw I heard mentioned in American TV and movies was actually the Arkansas I could see on maps. I think it was something said on Reddit, probably a thread similar to this, that was the revelation. And when I tell other Brits they're invariably similarly clueless, and quite gobsmacked. I'm not sure if anyone I've mentioned it too has said "oh yeah I knew that".