2 ms·

I'm a native English speaker, but not from the USA, and I'd heard Arkansas spoken out loud and written down separately for over a decade before I understood the

I'm a native English speaker, but not from the USA, and I'd heard Arkansas spoken out loud and written down separately for over a decade before I understood they were the same place. And my first thought when I realised this - even as a native English speaker - was incredulity at how mind-bogglingly stupid that was. You know, before I took 30 seconds to come up with a handful of other inconsistent pronunciations and begrudgingly concede that it wasn't any weirder than a lot of other inconsistencies I'd already absorbed without really realising it.

bckr 5y ago
Yep. I follow the advice in the article: > NEVER learn a new word without learning what is its sound. Because on probably a monthly basis my partner will make fun of me for pronouncing something wrong. The phrase is "I learned it from reading" --but it's not a good enough excuse anymore in our wide web'd world. Oh, and I've spoken American English since birth, and have been variously told my language and communication skills are very strong.