Part of the reason it the French pronunciation survived in Arkansas is probably because there used to be a decent French and French Creole speaking populations in the region. Hell the Ozarks were largely colonized by the Scots-Irish and if my Irish-Louisianian ancestor is anything to go by then they may have adopted French along side English and possibly Gaelic. Hell my ancestor spoke English, Gaelic, and French natively since his father was Irish and his mother was French Louisianan.
Part of the reason it the French pronunciation survived in Arkansas is probably because there used to be a decent French and French Creole speaking populations in the region. Hell the Ozarks were largely colonized by the Scots-Irish and if my Irish-Louisianian ancestor is anything to go by then they may have adopted French along side English and possibly Gaelic. Hell my ancestor spoke English, Gaelic, and French natively since his father was Irish and his mother was French Louisianan.