Re: Aks

T. A. McLeay, On 23/10/2007 10:02:
> 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?
In (young) London the vowel is long: /A:sk/ (as you'd expect), /A:ks/ (as you
wouldn't expect), like you report for Australia. I'd thought this was probably
from the Caribbean influence on London. But how plausible is it that London
Jafaican is influencing Australia? Maybe 'aks' is in fact a common inheritance
in both London and Australian, and the A in 'aks' lengthened to /A:/ by analogy
with 'ask'.

--And.