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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
Usage
"aks" or "ax" -- just how widespread is this word?
NY Times sent me this today:
GUEST COLUMNIST
Changing Places
By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr.
Is it possible, after all these years, that white folk have come to speak "black" far better than blacks speak "white"?
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/30/opinion/30gates.html?th
Fascinating article. You have to register to get it but, apart from site cookies, there's nothing at all to worry about.
The AUE copyright cops might let me get away with quoting these few paragraphs:
"Still, I have to confess that the use of "ax" for "ask" has always been, for me, the linguistic equivalent of fingernails' scraping down a blackboard. The first time I heard the word "ask" pronounced that way was on a Bill Cosby album in the 60's.
"I'm-o, I'm-o ax you a question," his character stammers, and in my Appalachian hamlet we'd laugh at that, certain that nobody would really be foolish enough to say "ax" for "ask."
"Don't get me wrong: it's not as if the black citizens of Piedmont, W.Va., spoke the king's English, but axing was something we did in the woods.
"It was when I first visited Bermuda, where just about everyone I met says "ax," that I began to suspect that this usage had deeper origins than I'd known. Sure enough, as William Labov, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania, explained to me, "aks" is traceable to the Old English "acsian," a nonstandard form of "ascian," the root of "ask."
Bermuda? I suppose Antartica will be next.
aokay
Use your name (or almost anything else) @ treveneth.com for email. This will work unless you or somebody else who has done the same thing has put me on spammers' lists. Ain't redirection marvellous? (g)
GUEST COLUMNIST
Changing Places
By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr.
Is it possible, after all these years, that white folk have come to speak "black" far better than blacks speak "white"?
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/30/opinion/30gates.html?th
Fascinating article. You have to register to get it but, apart from site cookies, there's nothing at all to worry about.
The AUE copyright cops might let me get away with quoting these few paragraphs:
"Still, I have to confess that the use of "ax" for "ask" has always been, for me, the linguistic equivalent of fingernails' scraping down a blackboard. The first time I heard the word "ask" pronounced that way was on a Bill Cosby album in the 60's.
"I'm-o, I'm-o ax you a question," his character stammers, and in my Appalachian hamlet we'd laugh at that, certain that nobody would really be foolish enough to say "ax" for "ask."
"Don't get me wrong: it's not as if the black citizens of Piedmont, W.Va., spoke the king's English, but axing was something we did in the woods.
"It was when I first visited Bermuda, where just about everyone I met says "ax," that I began to suspect that this usage had deeper origins than I'd known. Sure enough, as William Labov, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania, explained to me, "aks" is traceable to the Old English "acsian," a nonstandard form of "ascian," the root of "ask."
Bermuda? I suppose Antartica will be next.
aokay
Use your name (or almost anything else) @ treveneth.com for email. This will work unless you or somebody else who has done the same thing has put me on spammers' lists. Ain't redirection marvellous? (g)
Top answer
[nq:1]NY Times sent me this today: GUEST COLUMNIST Changing Places By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr. Is it possible, after all ... "[/nq] I question the use of "nonstandard" here, at a time centuries before there was anything that might be called a standard dialect of English.
- [nq:1]NY Times sent me this today: GUEST COLUMNIST Changing Places By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr.
- Is it possible, after all ...
- "[/nq] I question the use of "nonstandard" here, at a time centuries before there was anything that might be called a standard dialect of English.
- Furthermore, from what I have read, it is not at all clear whether "ascian" came first or whether "acsian" did.
- Has new scholarship actually identified which was first?
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26 Answers
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[nq:1]NY Times sent me this today: GUEST COLUMNIST Changing Places By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr. Is it possible, after all ... explained to me, "aks" is traceable to the Old English "acsian," a nonstandard form of "ascian," the root of "ask."[/nq]
I question the use of "nonstandard" here, at a time centuries before there was anything that might be called a standard dialect of English.
Furt
I question the use of "nonstandard" here, at a time centuries before there was anything that might be called a standard dialect of English.
Furt
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[nq:1]NY Times sent me this today: GUEST COLUMNIST Changing Places By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr. Is it possible, after all ... The first time I heard the word "ask" pronounced that way was on a Bill Cosby album in the 60's."[/nq]
Is "fingernails" apostrophised in the original?
Metathesis in words like "ask" is a common phenomenon with various causes. It would appear, for example, that the brain
Is "fingernails" apostrophised in the original?
Metathesis in words like "ask" is a common phenomenon with various causes. It would appear, for example, that the brain
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[nq:1]NY Times sent me this today: GUEST COLUMNIST Changing Places By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr. Is it possible, after all ... article. You have to register to get it but, apart from site cookies, there's nothing at all to worry about.[/nq]
I don't know how popular it is. I know my father (white) now "axes" questions. I believe it is because he works around younger people.
The one that puz
I don't know how popular it is. I know my father (white) now "axes" questions. I believe it is because he works around younger people.
The one that puz
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[nq:1]Furthermore, from what I have read, it is not at all clear whether "ascian" came first or whether "acsian" did. Has new scholarship actually identified which was first?[/nq]
Checking the etymology in AHD, they say both forms are from the reconstructed Germanic *aisko^n, which in turn is from Proto-Indo-European ais-sk-, from a root ais- 'to wish, desire'. I take it from this that in West
Checking the etymology in AHD, they say both forms are from the reconstructed Germanic *aisko^n, which in turn is from Proto-Indo-European ais-sk-, from a root ais- 'to wish, desire'. I take it from this that in West
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[nq:1]NY Times sent me this today: . . . By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr. . . . "Still, I have ... if the black citizens of Piedmont, W.Va., spoke the king's English, but axing was something we did in the woods.[/nq]
The novels of Kathy Reichs (published by Scribner's) attempt to show dialect pronunciation in print (unsuccessfully in my opinion.) They thus print:
1: ax for the chopping tool (i.e.
The novels of Kathy Reichs (published by Scribner's) attempt to show dialect pronunciation in print (unsuccessfully in my opinion.) They thus print:
1: ax for the chopping tool (i.e.
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[nq:2]Furthermore, from what I have read, it is not at ... "acsian" did. Has new scholarship actually identified which was first?[/nq]
[nq:1]Checking the etymology in AHD, they say both forms are from the reconstructed Germanic *aisko[/nq]^n, which in turn is from
[nq:1]Proto-Indo-European ais-sk-, from a root ais- 'to wish, desire'. I take it from this that in West Germanic the -ks- versi
[nq:1]Checking the etymology in AHD, they say both forms are from the reconstructed Germanic *aisko[/nq]^n, which in turn is from
[nq:1]Proto-Indo-European ais-sk-, from a root ais- 'to wish, desire'. I take it from this that in West Germanic the -ks- versi
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[nq:2]William Labov, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania, explained ... "acsian," a nonstandard form of "ascian," the root of "ask."[/nq]
[nq:1]I question the use of "nonstandard" here, at a time centuriesbefore there was anything that might be called a standard ... not at all clear whether "ascian" came first or whether "acsian" did. Has new scholarship actually identified which was
[nq:1]I question the use of "nonstandard" here, at a time centuriesbefore there was anything that might be called a standard ... not at all clear whether "ascian" came first or whether "acsian" did. Has new scholarship actually identified which was
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[nq:1]I was unaware, but ought not to have been surprised, how many Middle-English forms there were. OED1 lists: ox (with long o), ax,ex, ask, esk, ash, esh, ***, ess.[/nq]
The American Vulgate, a speaker of which I sometimes am, has (&st) ("ast") for "asked". That could conceivably be a contraction of either "akst" or "askt".
The American Vulgate, a speaker of which I sometimes am, has (&st) ("ast") for "asked". That could conceivably be a contraction of either "akst" or "askt".
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On 10/1/04 5:28 AM, in article
[nq:2]NY Times sent me this today: . . . By ... English, but axing was something we did in the woods.[/nq]
[nq:1]The novels of Kathy Reichs (published by Scribner's) attempt to show dialect pronunciation in print (unsuccessfully in my opinion.) They thus print: 1: ax for the chopping tool (i.e. standard US spelling) 2: axe for the dialect pronunciation of ask
[nq:2]NY Times sent me this today: . . . By ... English, but axing was something we did in the woods.[/nq]
[nq:1]The novels of Kathy Reichs (published by Scribner's) attempt to show dialect pronunciation in print (unsuccessfully in my opinion.) They thus print: 1: ax for the chopping tool (i.e. standard US spelling) 2: axe for the dialect pronunciation of ask
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[nq:1]The one that puzzles me though, and that seems a bit more common, is "excape" or "ekscape". Why do some people pronounce it this way? I say "escape".[/nq]
There was a '90s R&B group called "Xscape" (ask YJ).
Words with /Es-/ followed by a consonant have often been refashioned as /Eks-/ under the influence of Latinate words beginning with (see also and ). Historically, a simila
There was a '90s R&B group called "Xscape" (ask YJ).
Words with /Es-/ followed by a consonant have often been refashioned as /Eks-/ under the influence of Latinate words beginning with (see also and ). Historically, a simila
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