1611: arkansas and kansas May 13, 2019

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'Kansas' and 'Arkansas' sound different, but look really similar. They are both US states named for the same thing, the Kansas River, but the name ultimately comes from the kká:ze tribe. The French originally controlled this area before the United States did, and much like 'Illinois', or 'Laos', the S in the spelling was not supposed to represent a sound. Indeed, in early Kansas history, it didn't; the original name comes from the river, so in this case it is possessive: the Kansa's River. The extra syllable in Arkansas is thought to come from a variant used by the Quapaw tribe to pronounce the kká:ze tribe's name, and the R was added to reflect the non-rhoticity of the Southern accent.

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