A new law is passed that all words with similar spelling but different pronunciation (Kansas/Arkansas, read/read, Yemen/semen, live/live etc.) must now all have the same pronunciation, which pronunciations would be the new norm?

Man, that would be absolute chaos in the courtroom. Imagine trying to explain a contract clause when the judge and the opposing counsel can't agree on how the words even sound anymore. If we had to pick one for each, I'd bet the authorities would just go with the most common or "lazy" way people say them. Like for "read," we'd probably just stick to the past tense "red" for everything because it’s quicker to spit out when you're rushing through a deposition.

For the place names like Kansas and Arkansas, it would be a total linguistic nightmare. People would probably revolt if they forced everyone to pronounce them the same way because geography is tied to so much local pride. Honestly, if a law like that passed, we'd probably see a massive spike in typos and misunderstandings in legal filings. It’s funny to think about, but as someone who deals with word choices all day, I think our language would just lose all its character if we flattened it out like that.