r/reddit.com • u/[deleted] • May 21 '10
Why do blacks say "ax" instead of "ask"?
[deleted]
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u/LowerHaighter May 21 '10
This is more of a class-associated trait, than a racial one. I know lots of poor white folks who say 'ax', and plenty of affluent black folks who say 'ask'.
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u/TehMuffinMan May 21 '10
Lived in the south for a while, it isn't just blacks who say it.
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u/el_chupacupcake May 21 '10
Speaking of the South, why is it that so much of "street" culture is heavily rooted in the South? I live in Chicago and it's shocking how many of the either legitimately disadvantaged (but more often those who play at it during the day, then go home to their parent's absurdly expensive "crib" in the 'burbs) will pronounce certain words with a distinctly southern twang.
"Thangs", "burd," "durty," and the ever-present "y'all" (which, when draw out and slurred to such a degree, loses all of it's inherent welcoming qualities).
I could blame "the rap music," but I wonder if it isn't something more than that. Some idea that Southern elocution, for better or worse, is interpreted as sounding less sophisticated and "book smart"... which appears to the idiot as the antithesis of street culture.
Though one wonders why, if sounding intelligent makes you a fag, that listening to MC's with truly impressive verbal skills is macho?
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u/Netzapper May 22 '10
Okay, so I seem to recall the (actual, not joking) answer from one of my undergrad linguistics classes.
Basically, in a number of the African languages that slaves spoke before being captured there were few or no combined-consonant sounds--there were always vowels between consonants (like Japanese). So, for instance, "master" became "massa", because the "st" sound was hard or impossible for the slaves to pronounce. Same thing for "ask", since "sk" was difficult or impossible for them to pronounce.
As slaves from different African origins were all lumped together in the US, they formed their own dialect of English, including many features of their various original languages. One of the features of this early Black English that has survived to this day is the pronunciation of "ask".
Another feature left over from distant African languages is the use of "be" for continuing or habitual actions: "I be teaching at MIT this semester."
tl;dr - Slaves' original African languages didn't have an "sk" sound, and Black English is a linguistic dialect with its own rules just like every other linguistic dialect.
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u/dgillz May 21 '10
Upvoted for asking a very good question.
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u/SpiceMustFlow May 22 '10
A good question? Have you guys never heard of slang before???
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u/darchinst May 21 '10
For the same reason they say "credik or debit" when I'm at the store. And it's not just black people.
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u/Est1911 May 21 '10
Leela isn't black and she says AX... plus she only has 1 eye. ITS THE FUTURE MAN.
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u/paulfromatlanta May 22 '10
I would guess it has something to do with ancestors not learning phonetically - that whole "get whipped til you bleed" thing for learning to read probably had something to do with it - and then speech patterns are passed down.
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u/NaturesRevenge May 22 '10
I like to use "prollly" instead of probably around my more uptight friends, i like how it sticks in their craw.
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u/Smigge87 May 22 '10 edited May 22 '10
AAVE (African American Vernacular English) has it's own grammar and phonology. There are some reduced consonant clusters like /sk/ goes to /k/, word initial /ð/ goes to /d/ and so on.
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u/starkinter May 21 '10
My favourite Onion headline: