National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-03-11
"As,'' saw" way" "wee."

To the Editor Of The Republican:
The Arkan-saw Legislature has re-
Gently adopted resolution declaring that the
proper pronunciation of the name spelled CAR
kansas to be Arkan-saw, as it is commonly
sounded by the people of that State. Upon this
the Chicago Inter Ocean asks, Must we say Kan
saw as well as Arkan- The answer to this
would be, Eyes; most certainly; that is if we are
guided by the derivations of both words but NO
must be the answer if we defer to the usage of the
new people of Kansas, who generally adopt the
final "as" while the people of the other State uni
versally go it quite broadly on the Jaw" Did
anybody ever hear of THE Arkan- sas Traveller Pa
or is it not "The Arkan-saw Traveller" The State
of Kansas was named after the &" Kaw" tribe of
Indians. branch of the great Usage Dakota Din
eontradiStinction TO the SiouI-Dakota) strain of
tribes speaking Cognate dialects, which tribe in
ancient narratives, frequently appears, according
TO the English notation, as the "KOnZa" or the
"KonZas, and also as the Kaws;" but in French
the French notation being SILENT and merely broad
ening the preceding vowel, and making the sound
Kan saw, or kans- ali or, properly, Kawnsay."
The earliest notation of the name of the Hot
Springs State is in Marquette's voyage and map of
his and Jollyettes so-called first explanation and
discovery of the Mississippi River. He spells it
"Akensa" lthe meaning of which name has never
yet been beaten out, 10 quote old John ElliOtts
phraseolOgy In regard to another Indian wordl
Subsequent French narrators added the 50 TO make
the last syllable more emphatcaly long" ali or
aw," as in the French names of Dumas (Dumaw)
and Maurepas (Mawrepaw). In the dialect of the
Usage Dakota tribes, the Kansas tribe was known
as the Kawn-Zay, the being nasal and scarcely
sounded, while the =" ay" iSsimply the substantive
termination applied TO all proper snbStantiveS
when standing alone: and this explains why
the early hunters, traders, and trappers of both
French and English often called the tribe the
"Kaw" or Kaws,' dropping the unnec-
essary. termination in "sy." To this
River is more generally known as the "Kaw"
River: Usage must TO a great extent, determine
prOpriety in these things In the new State of
Kansas her new people favor Kansas" and in
the elder State the people, with few exceptions,
pronounce "Arkan- saw and IL is well 70 give both
the old and the new men q" a chance The prairie
State prefers to be sassy, and the more timbered
land would rather saw By the way, the pro-
nunciatiOn of" Iowa" IS another mOoted point
Superlatively wise, but not well-informed people
will be heard saying I-o-wab," when the sound
should be, according to the Indian original
"I-o-way.' In the earliest French narratives it is
spelled Aious that is All Sc Co ay) the French
"e" following the French ah." giving. measure
first vowel. The name Chippewa" Is still an
other shibboleth. Those who don't know how IL
should be pronounced will be heard sounding it
Chippe-waw las a new-hedged territorial Gov
ernor Of Minnesota, in his ineffable eoneeit once
did, whereas the last syllable should be distinctly
way" Illinois " is another case of perverted
pronunciation. The terminable syllable in "ois"
was originally and correctly sounded by the
French "wee," the Indian plural but the Anglo
Americans have so long given the English sound
to those three terminal letters las in our noise ~
that it were hopeless now to correct the universal
error. TT.