[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18986]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                     PRONUNCIATION OF ``ARKANSAS''

 Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, today I wish to share an interesting 
piece of Arkansas history with my colleagues and the American people. 
Over the last few centuries, the origin and pronunciation of 
``Arkansas'' has been shrouded in a bit of mystery, with many 
mispronunciations. So to correct any future mistakes before they are 
made, I submit the following resolution on the proper pronunciation of 
``Arkansas.'' After a study by the Arkansas Historical Society and the 
Eclectic Society of Little Rock, the resolution was introduced and 
passed by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1881. The resolution was 
included in an article edited by Margaret Ross that ran in the Arkansas 
Gazette on December 4, 1960, and reads as follows:

       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; and that it should be 
     pronounced in three syllables with the final `s' silent, the 
     `a' in each syllable with the Italian sound, and the accent 
     on the first and last syllables--being the pronunciation 
     formerly, universally, and now still most commonly used; and 
     that 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.

  Mr. President, I hope my colleagues have found this small piece of 
Arkansas history as enlightening as I did, and I would hope that any 
future mispronunciations of ``Arkansas'' be ``an innovation to be 
discouraged.''

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