A bit back we had a discussion on place names and French influence. Slate explains why the "kansas" in Arkansas is pronounced differently from Kansas. Blame the French.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valle...ently.html

What do you mean pronounced differently???

(08-27-2014 03:04 PM)Usajags Wrote:  What do you mean pronounced differently???

the "kansas" part of the name Arkansas is pronounced cansaw, while Kansas is pronounced Kanzis

I'm sure this will flabbergast the minds of many, (not to mention the fact many more have never heard of Arkansas as a state).

My dad's grandparents lived in the country on a rice farm and spoke only French, they didn't know a word of English. He and his six brothers spent all summer, every summer with the grand parents and all of them learned to speak French fluently.

I always enjoyed listening to my dad and his brothers speak French with one another at our family get-togethers.....probably discussing things they didn't want any of the kids or wives to understand.

When I was growing up it wasn't cool to speak French and I missed an excellent opportunity and it would have been easy if he'd only spoken French with us as kids. Kids pick up a foreign language much more rapidly than adults.

Anyway, thanks for reminding me of my dad.

(08-27-2014 03:27 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(08-27-2014 03:04 PM)Usajags Wrote:  What do you mean pronounced differently???

the "kansas" part of the name Arkansas is pronounced cansaw, while Kansas is pronounced Kanzis

Oh, so it's not Arkanzis. :^)

(08-27-2014 04:20 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  My dad's grandparents lived in the country on a rice farm and spoke only French, they didn't know a word of English. He and his six brothers spent all summer, every summer with the grand parents and all of them learned to speak French fluently.

I always enjoyed listening to my dad and his brothers speak French with one another at our family get-togethers.....probably discussing things they didn't want any of the kids or wives to understand.

When I was growing up it wasn't cool to speak French and I missed an excellent opportunity and it would have been easy if he'd only spoken French with us as kids. Kids pick up a foreign language much more rapidly than adults.

Anyway, thanks for reminding me of my dad.

One of the Vermillionville tour guides had a similar story and said she wished she had learned as well.

Glad to trigger the memory.

(08-27-2014 04:40 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  One of the Vermillionville tour guides had a similar story and said she wished she had learned as well.

Glad to trigger the memory.

Before his death, my dad also became fluent in Spanish and Portuguese doing a lot of rice production consulting in Central America and Southern Brazil. He said the French background made the other two easy to learn.

I'm still trying to learn Spanish. LOL.

BTW, I've been to Vermilionville......not for the tour but for a couple of crawfish boils. God I miss home cookin'.

Growing up on the East coast we got a choice of languages to study. Not really interested in Spanish so I took 5 years of French. It got me a trip to Paris my Sophomore year.

I actually kinda sucked at it then and now but did enough to make it through the classes. To this day I can listen to people speaking it, understand what they're saying but not be able to verbalize that to anyone. I'm really good at French movies with subtitles. I would turn to the hubster and kids and say "what they put on the screen isn't what they just said" But, as I stated, I could never really put it into practice.

The town of Smackover is actually "Sumac Couvert" or Sumac Covered. Leave it to us to turn a nice name into Smackover.

We can't complain about Ar-Kansas because we pronounce Lafayette County....luh-FAY-it and Nevada County.....nuh-VAYDA.

Quote:Growing up on the East coast we got a choice of languages to study. Not really interested in Spanish so I took 5 years of French. It got me a trip to Paris my Sophomore year.

I actually kinda sucked at it then and now but did enough to make it through the classes. To this day I can listen to people speaking it, understand what they're saying but not be able to verbalize that to anyone. I'm really good at French movies with subtitles. I would turn to the hubster and kids and say "what they put on the screen isn't what they just said" But, as I stated, I could never really put it into practice.

Catmom, that's pretty common most times someone is learning or has studied a foreign language but not yet mastered it......one tends to understand far more than one can verbalize.

(08-27-2014 05:37 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  The town of Smackover is actually "Sumac Couvert" or Sumac Covered. Leave it to us to turn a nice name into Smackover.

We can't complain about Ar-Kansas because we pronounce Lafayette County....luh-FAY-it and Nevada County.....nuh-VAYDA.

I suspect the word nevada has its roots in Spanish, perhaps there's a similar word in French. A snow storm in the moutains here would be described as a nevada. Simon Bolivar's white horse was also called Nevada. And I've actually been to luh-FAY-it county Arkansas. LOL

Time for some football.