Pronunciation · Science and learning

How to pronounce arkansas

The final s in Arkansas is silent: CMUdict gives AA1 R K AH0 N S AA2, AR-kun-saw, not a reading that rhymes with Kansas.

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The dictionary sound sequence

CMUdict lists this North American English pronunciation for arkansas. Read each sequence from left to right. The numbers mark vowel stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

Dictionary variant 1

AA1 R K AH0 N S AA2

Syllable estimate: 3 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 1st vowel position
Secondary stress: 3rd vowel position

Check arkansas in Merriam-Webster and listen to available dictionary audio.

Syllable counts come from vowel tokens; CMUdict does not supply syllable boundaries here. Variant order follows the dictionary and does not rank correctness. This lexicon does not represent every accent or context.

Use arkansas in context

Arkansas shares its last six letters with Kansas but not its ending sound. The state name is stressed on the first syllable and closes on "saw", with no final s. Geography lessons, news reads and travel scripts can all trip here if the reader pattern matches the neighboring state.

The river forms part of the border between Arkansas and Tennessee.
Her grandparents still live on a farm in Arkansas.

Read the sound tokens

Each example word below is a cue for the named sound, rather than a respelling of arkansas. Unstressed vowels may sound reduced. These cues follow the CMU phoneme-set key (Appendix A).

AAsound in oddvowel

Rsound in readconsonant

Ksound in keyconsonant

AHsound in hutvowel

Nsound in kneeconsonant

Ssound in seaconsonant

Take it to your next recording

Make an audition worksheet

Select a dictionary variant for your checklist. The two original sentences retain their normal spelling; this worksheet helps you review a recording rather than forcing a speech engine to use phonemes.

Worksheet pronunciation variant

Your plain-text audition worksheet

How to pronounce arkansas

Word: arkansas
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: AA1 R K AH0 N S AA2
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 3
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
The river forms part of the border between Arkansas and Tennessee.
Her grandparents still live on a farm in Arkansas.

REVIEW CHECKLIST
[ ] Read both sentences naturally; keep the source wording.
[ ] Compare the intended pronunciation with the selected dictionary variant.
[ ] Listen for vowel sounds, consonants, and word stress in context.
[ ] Check with a speaker or another dictionary when accent or meaning matters.
[ ] Generate and listen to a short Murmur sample before exporting the full script.

Practice note: Say "Kansas" and then Arkansas back to back so you can hear the difference in the ending. Keep that contrast in mind when both states appear in the same script.

CMUdict is a North American English lexicon, not a recording or a complete accent guide.
Variant order is dictionary order; it is not a ranking of correctness.
Source: https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/cmudict.dict
Source commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690
License: https://www.murmurtts.com/downloads/cmudict-license.txt
Reference: https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/arkansas

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Dictionary source

The phonemes on this page come from CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The dictionary maintainers acknowledge that errors and omissions can remain; check another source or a speaker when the pronunciation matters.

CMUdict README · Included dictionary license

Source version and checksum

Commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690

Dictionary SHA-256: 81917843c7f44ce2b094ac63873c2c7a4cf802040792c455ba3ca406891c3d22

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