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Yes--the Ask to aks is currently a characteristic of Black English-- but this is just a sub set of rural american english-- that includes Purty (or pertty, or any other varient spelling for Pretty)-- and YCLU the term for this sort of shifting of sounds.. i thought it was interesting, but not so interesting that i remember the term..
some other thread (or is it the beginning of this one.?) points out Brid-- has changed into Bird by the same process.
and curiously, to my ear I say Juring for During..but when i did an informal survey-- most people heard me say during-- yet i hear the sound as very different.. but not quite as changed as "Did you eat?" is in the expression "Jeet?" (but Jyeet might be a better spelling..) but getting there.
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and YCLU the term for this sort of shifting of sounds
Metathesis. It's the same process that gave us bird from brid.
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Thanks, tsuwm! Oi! What an intriguing dilemma!  So, actually, anyone in editorial authority could arbitrarily decree the use of either form and be correct.
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I have been trying and trying to remember the particulars of a class I had in college that dealt with Black American dialect. The only thing I can remember is that several studies were done of a dialect from the mid-Atlantic coast area(real specific, aren't I  )that incorporated African grammer and some simular vocabulary with slave English. Aks was one of these words. It follows a natural African progression, somehow. If I can find my notes from that class..........Maybe someone else has heard of these studies?
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old hand
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old hand
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incorporated African grammar and some similar
vocabulary with slave English. Aks was one of these words.
Interesting. Just to ad spice to this stew, I have known two black Caribbeans (One from Belize, formerly British Honduras, and one from one of the former French islands) Neither of them said aks; rather, they said ahsk. Both of these places acquired their Africans as slaves, yet their pronunciations were distinctly British.
Might we conclude that cutural isolation had something to do with the development of aks?
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Consuelo, Do you mean Gullah? it is a varient of english particular to the the coastal island of the Carolinias.. (north? south? one of them)
Hilton Head has been developed, but basically, from George (maybe even florida) there are a series of breakwater islands.. low flat dunes, with shallow bays and then the main land.. Whitman is on (or near) one in NJ.. I know all of NY's by name.. but only Hilton Head -- and Sea Isle-- as in sea isle cotton-- south of NJ (i know some of NJ barrier islands --Atlantic City is one one.. if you have ever driven there.. you know there is only one way in.. a causeway across the bay.)
all of them are low and frequently flooded in hurricane season. many barrier island are very isolated. the former slaves who remained on these island, grew more and more isolated.. and there english retains elizabethian vocabulary.. but also include some words from their former african languages..
gullah has been studied since it is supposed that not only do the speakers have elizabethian vocabularies, but also they retain old meanings, and pronounciations..
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The one that irks me most is the ever increasing usage of "dee-fence" rather than the original "d'fence".Okay, I know I'm a bit behind, but I've been both busy with school and not feeling well, therefore AWAD got left by the wayside for a little while. stales, would it make you feel better to know that dee-fence is also the way you'd say it in hockey in Canada? As in "I play defense". Or the opposing team gets the puck, the defenseman (or defensewoman, if it were my team and I was on the ice) is way out of position, the guy's about to have a breakaway, and people yell..."Who's on D?" Not "Who's on Duh?" Similarly I hear offense pronounced with the first "o" like "owe". It fits when you're saying "offense and defense". But it's actually quite awkward; I think I prefer the awe-fense pronounciation. Just my two cents (or 1.2 cents US$).
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Alexander Theroux, Paul Theroux the travel writer's brother, is the snootiest of the snooty, bar none. He criticizes, in one of his works of fiction, certain characters' use of "fordy" for "forty," "thirdy-five" for "thirty-five," and so on.
I listen hard to the speech here in central Virginia, and I would say I rarely, if ever, hear the "t" enunciated in thirty and forty, although it's there often in fifty, sixty, seventy, etc. However, in numbers such as forty-five, I hear "fordy-five." I attribute this to the alacrity of the tongue itself rather than ignorance, especially in the enunciation of numbers. We more often hear "liddle" rather than "little." These don't get my quince up as does "crown" for "crayon."
Best regards,
WW, who's gedding ready for about thirdy dinner guests, big and liddle
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