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We've recently moved from New Zealand to New York City, and have noticed that many people (most of whom have good English) pronounce "ask" as "aks". For example:

Could you please go aks her tomorrow?

Sure, I'll ax her! :-)

What's the origin/etymology of "aks"? It seems to be more common among African Americans, but it's definitely used by others too.

RegDwigнt
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Ben Hoyt
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    I had not heard this pronunciation until I moved from New Zealand to Australia, where I heard it from an Australian, an accountant if it matters, in a suburb of Melbourne. I've also heard it said by a middle-manager here in Bedfordshire, UK. On both occasions I assumed it was a speech impediment - but after reading @RegDwight's answer I won't in future be as quick to judge. – Ed Guiness Feb 10 '11 at 15:08
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    I first encountered “ax” reading Hardy and Dickens — the both use it form time to time, iirc, as a feature of certain heavy rural accents/dialects. (West Country in Hardy; I can’t remember where it comes up in Dickens.) I was amazed when I found out that it still exists in plenty of dialects in real life, and not just rural English ones… – PLL Feb 10 '11 at 16:35
  • It's common today in Ireland. – TRiG Jul 03 '11 at 19:16
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    And in Futurama. – Michael Lorton Jul 07 '11 at 17:43
  • I've also heard Newfoundlanders pronounce ask 'ax.' – JAM Apr 10 '12 at 14:42
  • Not sure about outside Australia, but in Australia it represents poor use of English, and an uneducated background. Children often spontaneously say 'aks', and diligent parents picke them up on it, so they outgrow it. – Pete855217 Nov 16 '12 at 05:32
  • I think Popeye popularised this version. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 16 '13 at 19:36
  • It's also popular in comedy, such as The Catherine Tate Show and Little Britain. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Aug 13 '18 at 12:04

1 Answers1

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This phenomenon is called metathesis. I humbly direct you to my answer to a related question for details. Here, I will just note that aks goes back to Old English, where there were two versions of the verb, ascian and acsian. See this Language Log post:

As the [Oxford English Dictionary] explains, the verb form spelled "ax", and meaning "To call upon any one for information, or an answer", originated more than a thousand years ago in OE. ("Old English")[.]
[...]
The crucial bit [is] this:

Acsian, axian, survived in ax, down to nearly 1600 the regular literary form, and still used everywhere in midl. and south. dialects, though supplanted in standard English by ask, originally the northern form.

So, as a matter of fact, aks is not a speech error. It is a well-established feature of certain dialects.

Community
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RegDwigнt
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    Hearing aks makes me go nucular. – fortunate1 Feb 10 '11 at 14:58
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    @fortunate: that's a very revelant comment. – RegDwigнt Feb 10 '11 at 15:00
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    +1 I did not know this, and I confess to smirking unkindly on occasion. I won't do that any more. – Ed Guiness Feb 10 '11 at 15:01
  • I have only ever heard this from African American individuals, both in NYC (been there twice) and on TV/Film/Documentaries – mplungjan Feb 10 '11 at 15:05
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    Here comes the calvary. – Chris B. Behrens Feb 10 '11 at 15:37
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    Various other points beloved of pedants might profitably be considered from a historical point of view: singular "their" and "disinterested" meaning "not excited by" are two examples. – Colin Fine Feb 10 '11 at 15:37
  • If you only ever hear African American say this you prolly haven't been paying attention. – horatio Feb 10 '11 at 16:10
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    I seem to remember Ray Romano speaking this way on 'Everyone loves Raymond" – dave Feb 10 '11 at 17:15
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    @Ed Guiness: Neither did I, as do I, nor shall I. In that order. – PSU Feb 10 '11 at 18:15
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    @RegDwight, thanks for the info -- very interesting. However, one thing that makes me think it still might be a "speech error" is that no one spells it "ax" anymore. So the spelling has been uniformly changed to "ask", but not the pronunciation. – Ben Hoyt Feb 10 '11 at 18:56
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    @benhoyt: The spelling of wimmen has been uniformly changed to women, too. But spoken language is still primary. By the time you learned to read and to write, you were a native speaker already. So, when people came along and said, "you must write women with an O, not with an I", you didn't change your pronunciation. – RegDwigнt Feb 11 '11 at 07:54
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    @ben: Your observation that it's now always spelled "ask" does not actually have a bearing on whether it's a speech error or a dialect feature. We all spell "often" with a "t" that many people never pronounce. Everyone spells "knight" with letters that are not pronounced. "February" is almost never pronounced with the first "r", and when I say "almost, already, palm" I do it without an "l". So, as the answer says, this is a feature of some dialects of English; the spelling is a separate issue. Oh, and if it were a speech error, the same people would pronounce "task" as "taks". They don't. –  Apr 09 '12 at 23:13
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    @eemg - how can you pronounce February without the first "r?" That would be Febuary! – Rory Alsop Aug 08 '12 at 14:47
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    @RoryAlsop: yes. Have you never heard that pronunciation? – Colin Fine Aug 22 '12 at 15:51
  • @Colin- never heard it, no. – Rory Alsop Aug 22 '12 at 16:46
  • ... and here I was thinking the guys in Futurama pulled a number on us :) – Magnus Jan 16 '13 at 19:22