Re: Aks

T. A. McLeay wrote:
> R A Brown wrote:
[snip]
>>
>> It was also a common pronunciation of 'ask' in some Brit English
>> dialects, at least until the early part of the 20th century - not
>> sure if it still survives. In older dialect texts it is usually
>> spelled 'ax'. Dutton adopted this form in his Speedwords.
>>
>> Such metathesis has a long history in English. Both _acsian_ and
>> _ascian_ occurred in Old English.
>
> In Australia some people metathesise "ask" too, but I doubt this is a
>  part of a long tradition, but a more recent change probably
> influenced by other dialects of English as the result is /a:ks/. In
> British English in areas that have a broad "a" in "ask", if there's a
> metathesised form, is the vowel broad or flat?
AFAIK it was (is?) /&ks/ which, in the north of England would be [aks],
but [&ks] in the south (more or less).

On checking I find that _ax_ /&ks/ was used in the Sussex dialect at
least till the 19th century & possibly into the 20th (but tho I heard
_wops_ as a boy in West Sussex, I don't recall hearing _ax_ - but
linguistically the eastern part of the county was always more
conservative). According to my "Glossary of the Provincialisms in use in
the County of Sussex" (1853), _ax_ was also used in Yorkshire, East
Anglia, Somerset, Devon, and Heredfordshire.

It also occurs in Wycliff's NT "Jhesus axide hem" (Jesus asked them),
and in Chaucer "Our host him axed, what man art thou?" [Ploughman's Tale].

As many of the early settlers of the Caribbean and American states came
from East Anglia & from Somerset and Devon, I suspect the _ax_ which
apparently characterizes speech of Afro-Caribbeans & Afro-Americans (if
I've understood replies correctly) was learnt from sailors and slave
owners of long ago.

--
Ray
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