Re: Aks
| From: | T. A. McLeay <conlang@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, October 23, 2007, 9:03 |
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R A Brown wrote:
> James W. wrote:
>> FWIW, 'aks' is a pretty common pronunciation of 'ask'
>> in Belizean english (at least is was 15-16 years ago
>> when I was there...) Probably in Caribbean English in
>> general.
>
> 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?
("Ahks" and "wops" strike me as much easier to pronounce than "ask" and
"wasp" anyway (even though I don't), no matter what the sonority
hierarchy might predict.)
--
Tristan.
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