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You can change the spelling of one word in the English language to match how they are pronounced. What word do you pick? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by ericbomb@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

400 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm picking "Colonel" needs to be respelled to match how it's pronounced.

Try to pick a word no one else has picked. What word are you respelling?

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[–] fubo@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (4 children)

"Arkansas" and "Kansas" are both from the Osage language, but the former passed through French on its way to English.

[–] catharso@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i'm from somewhere in europe and always wondered why you guys would pronounce those two so different!

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

I've heard that, but "Ar Kan Saw" is nothing like how a French person would pronounce "Arkansas"

[–] guyrocket@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That is interesting. Do you have a source?

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas

[–] csolisr@communities.azkware.net 1 points 1 year ago

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