News from all over - Little Rock
Legislators will send Gov. Mike Beebe a resolution declaring "Arkansas's" the proper possessive form of the state's name, but the governor is way ahead of them. His office began using the additional "s" in news releases Monday, said spokesman Matt DeCample.
In what became a grammatical Gordian knot, the Arkansas Senate supported the resolution Tuesday after the House passed it the week before. The Senate vote came after a few groans and an introduction on the history of "the much-debated apostrophe-s" by state Sen. Jim Hill.
"This thing is seeded in history," Hill said, lamenting the lack of enthusiasm on the Senate floor. "I expected more intelligent questions than this."
After Arkansas became a state in 1836, confusion remained on its spelling and its pronunciation, as many maps from the time spelled it without its final "s." A resolution by the Legislature in 1881 formalized its current spelling and pronunciation, making its final "s" silent.
"We've waited 126 years for this," Rep. Steve Harrelson said. "This adds, shall we say, legitimacy."
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In what became a grammatical Gordian knot, the Arkansas Senate supported the resolution Tuesday after the House passed it the week before. The Senate vote came after a few groans and an introduction on the history of "the much-debated apostrophe-s" by state Sen. Jim Hill.
"This thing is seeded in history," Hill said, lamenting the lack of enthusiasm on the Senate floor. "I expected more intelligent questions than this."
After Arkansas became a state in 1836, confusion remained on its spelling and its pronunciation, as many maps from the time spelled it without its final "s." A resolution by the Legislature in 1881 formalized its current spelling and pronunciation, making its final "s" silent.
"We've waited 126 years for this," Rep. Steve Harrelson said. "This adds, shall we say, legitimacy."
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