African-Americans. Why do you say aks instead of ask?

Question

Yes, I'm going there. I'm sick of the plight of blacks in this country. And guess what, it's even worse in the UK (in terms of employment).

I understand that blacks have been dealt a bad card. I have read history. But isn't it time to move forward? When you say aks instead of ask doesn't that pigeon-**** you at interviews? Do you want to get the job or not?

I swear we live in a world of anti-black stupid-a****es and also blacks who are the same because they desire no solutions either.

HANDS up those who think it's working right now.

What is the problem. Who's gonna win on the hate train?

We know it's ask, not aks. But some of us choose the latter just to prove that we're different. That we refuse to obey. Guess what, it's not that **** to figure out. It doesn't signify a better brain or a type of non-conforming. Language is beautiful. It has nothing to do with "belonging" or "subversion". It just conveys the opposite: that you can't learn English. Get it?

I say this out of love. I want the African-Americans (whatever society calls you today) to find your place in our future. (I know some have and I rejoice). But we need your help. Are you helping us?

Answer 1

1. I'm black. I say ask as opposed to aks. Your generalization is off.

2. It's not a black people issue, it's actually not an issue at all. It's a dialect of the English language, just like Southern tongue, a Boston accent or a New Yorker's speak. The day you tell a New Yorker to say Water instead of "Wuata" is the day you can complain about it.

3. "aks", or ask. To say the former is a broken version of the latter is ignoring the fact that the latter stems from a language that is practically a broken Latin

4. The world is not going to *** when people say aks. It does not make the world a worse place, and just because someone cannot/ was not raised to speak like you does not mean you are any better than them.

Answer 2

It can be dangerous too, like that time Lizzie Borden wanted to stay at a friend's house so she put the question to her nanny.

"I don't know, Lizzie" she replied "you better go upstairs and axe your parents first."

Answer 3

Some people who were born and raised in the UK say AKS too. I think they do so by choice just as some politicians and news readers can't be bothered to say Nuclear and say nookular instead.

Answer 4

<!-- When I was a little boy I thought Kennedy sounded weird the way he said 'Ask' not what you're country can do for you etc... with that white Massachusetts accent. lol Why doesn't he learn English the way us Joisy boys say ask.Alls it is,is a different way of speaking.Btw a Texan pointed that out to me I worked with.Why do y'all from Jersey say alls it is? I replied the same reason you people from Texas say y'all instead of you all.He laughed.I don't now btw.But the way the English pronounce their car Jaguar gets on my nerves. lol How dare the English speak a different English.than me! They sound so stupid.Hmmm? Wait it's their language. It's not the pronunciation it's the content that matters.Try living in the NYC metro area for most of your life you'll really be upset the way everyone speaks differently from around the U.S and world. I never heard Jaguar pronounced this way until this commercial came out a few years ago.And I've had English friends from Great Britain living in NJ. <OBJECT orig_size="425x355" width="350" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="1374323861.12" height="292"><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never"><param name="enableJSURL" value="false"><param name="enableHREF" value="false"><param name="saveEmbedTags" value="true"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/e56X7ZGwZfk&amp;rel=1&amp;autoplay=0"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/e56X7ZGwZfk&amp;rel=1&amp;autoplay=0" allowNetworking="internal" wmode="transparent" allowScriptAccess="never" enableHREF="false" height="292" width="350" enableJSURL="false" autostart="false" orig_size="425x355" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></OBJECT> American English Jag commercial and now English English Jag pronunciation. <OBJECT orig_size="425x355" width="350" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="1374323861.12" height="292"><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never"><param name="enableJSURL" value="false"><param name="enableHREF" value="false"><param name="saveEmbedTags" value="true"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/3fRicJT1HfE&amp;rel=1&amp;autoplay=0"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/3fRicJT1HfE&amp;rel=1&amp;autoplay=0" allowNetworking="internal" wmode="transparent" allowScriptAccess="never" enableHREF="false" height="292" width="350" enableJSURL="false" autostart="false" orig_size="425x355" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></OBJECT> -->When I was a little boy I thought Kennedy sounded weird the way he said 'Ask' not what you're country can do for you etc... with that white Massachusetts accent. lol Why doesn't he learn English the way us Joisy boys say ask.Alls it is,is a different way of speaking.Btw a Texan pointed that out to me I worked with.Why do y'all from Jersey say alls it is? I replied the same reason you people from Texas say y'all instead of you all.He laughed.I don't now btw.But the way the English pronounce their car Jaguar gets on my nerves. lol How dare the English speak a different English.than me! They sound so stupid.Hmmm? Wait it's their language. It's not the pronunciation it's the content that matters.Try living in the NYC metro area for most of your life you'll really be upset the way everyone speaks differently from around the U.S and world. I never heard Jaguar pronounced this way until this commercial came out a few years ago.And I've had English friends from Great Britain living in NJ.

American English Jag commercial and now English English Jag pronunciation.

Answer 5

hey I've been in the US so long that when I hear the original pronunciation of Jaguar (the English way) it sounds weird to me too! The most hilarious one that hit me was how the town of Cairo is pronounced in the US. That just totally floored me.... but then in Egypt it's neither because it's called El Kahira LOL

Answer 6

They're recently pushing their new Jag F type on commercials said the correct way.I first heard it that way on a commercial only about 3 yrs. ago and I'm a car guy. lol I correct people on how they say Porche,they don't like that. lol

Answer 7

My relatives were from Jersey City earl ,terlet much like Brooklyn's accent.(oil,toilet) :)

Answer 8

Meh,.. another one with issues,...

I'll have to pass on this one,.. the sheer ignorance of lumping black folk like this on A WORD?

Pass.

Answer 9

*** bless the "aks" sayers. What do you want? For Engrish to be a dead language? A language that doesn't change or drift? People speak english differently because there are so many english speakers. With so many, it's bound to mutate and morph...there's nothing wrong with that...quite frankly it tells me that it's doing swimmingly well.

Answer 10

Good question flaca! The answer is. . . . .I have no idea! SMH

Answer 11

aks

Answer 12

I saw this picture before. It said 'Do you want to ask me, or axe me, because seriously one is murder.'

Answer 13

Is this even serious?

And you realise there's not one "right" way to speak English? There are many variations in the English language and to say that your way is the only right way is quite self-important of you. And the way you're talking it sounds like you think changing the way some black people speak is going to solve America's racism problem (hint: it's really not, and this post of yours is contributing to the problem). You're not even talking about an entire accent, you're just peeved by one word!

By the way, the only people I've seen use "aks" instead of "ask" are English teenagers, and not just black teenagers.

Answer 14

In 1981, Michael Donald was lynched in Mobile, Alabama. It was the last recorded lynching in America. Pictured below is a newsletter that was a part of the evidence in the civil trial:



1981 wasn't so very long ago, Flaca. Hundreds of years of oppression, suppression and mistreatment cannot be undone within the span of a generation or two. Saying things like, " I'm sick of the plight of blacks in this country" does nothing to heal the divide. I have generally found you to be a reasonable person...but this post...is not one of those times.

Some people have a different dialect. Some people say "axe", and some people say "ask". Some of those people are white, some are black. Some are red, brown and yellow. It seems to me that it is ****** something to get so upset over. How sad.

Answer 15

thoughtful as usual, blunderwoman.

Answer 16

Thank you!

Answer 17

I'm not sure I understand where you are coming from. Your final paragraph of the text leaves me wondering. I wonder what exactly you mean by "we need your help". As if, it is necessary for black people to change their culture - in this case; dialect - in order to be accepted? No.

Now, I agree that while in an interview for a job, it is inappropriate to use slang terms like aks instead of ask, or eyeite instead of alright, but that has to do with the formal setting. It would be equally inappropriate for me (a white man, btw) to use terms like dude instead of sir, or finish every other sentence with "man", like I'm prone to do in a more relaxed setting.

Answer 18

Why do right-wingers say "nukular"?

Answer 19

I am 57, college educated and grew up in the south with both Cajun and Black friends and never heard the word aks(axe) used in lieu of ask until recent years. it is now one my biggest pet peeves. it seems deliberate on the part of the user for whatever reason, but does not elevate them in anyone's eyes. It is simply poor grammar.

Answer 20

It's just like saying, "ain't"......
Different people speak differently, that's all.

Answer 21

What do you mean "I'm going there." Like you're taking it to the next level. This is a moronic question because it should have been "why do SOME of you..." And I don't say aks, that word is so silly. I'M sick of seeing some whites ******** about "The race card" on here 24/7. But we can't do anything about what we're sick if can we? And I honestly can't remember the last time the word aks came out of anyone's mouth that I'm around.

Answer 22

Why aren't white people called European-Americans?

Answer 23

I love how people sit on their throne and cast judgement on others, not ALL blacks say "aks" instead of "ask"--if you do, it's probably a regional accent, southern thing, not just a refusal to say a word correctly

Answer 24

Not all African-Americans/Blacks say "aks".
The only people I have heard say "aks" are those (REGARDLESS of ethnicity; YES, I have heard Asians and Caucasians say "aks") are those with more southern sounding accents. To me the distinction between "ask" and "aks" has more to do with regional accent than ethnicity.

Answer 25

I dont no whys we talk like dat. I's sory. We try an do betta.

Answer 26

I've come across many non African Americans who pronounce it that way too, it's not only exclusive to blacks. I've also, heard many African Americans pronounce it as, "ask," as well.

Answer 27

It is not wrong .

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.

Answer 28

Most of this bull$hit started from in 1600's with slavery. English was not the native tongue of African slaves; however they attempted to learn. Yet, the non slaves, masters, et al would find it humorous and entertaining when slaves mispronounce English words and they encouraged it and it has ran in a vicious cycle. Some slaves were beaten for learning and speaking grammatically correct English and the mispronounced words were only one accepted. History teaches us slave were forbidden for the most part to learn to read. I have never pronounced the words you suggested and I do not know many Black people who do. Your statement is blanketed and more than a little insulting. However, it proves the same intolerable ignorance continues today. Many people find humor in the mispronunciation especially by Blacks of certain words. This question is an example. There is no such thing as a Black culture. This is a perpetuation of stereotypes that are devised to further denigrate and continue to entwine Blacks in a new breed of slavery.

Answer 29

1. we are not a monolithic group that acts as one.

2. black american middle and upper-middle classes
are currently the largest in our history. there are no
major cities without a significant number of black
working professionals in every sector.

3. the majority of black people in the us are working class.

not recognizing these facts before forming an opinion
of my people is wrong. we have more of a stake in this
land than any minority. ***** all you want about the trivial.

if people tried to ********* the behavior of rednecks, white-
collar crooks, or pedophiles on all white people, you ****
sure wouldn't like it.

Answer 30

Amen.

Answer 31

much appreciated, champess.

Answer 32

I'm sure some do, some don't....probably the same reason people say yeah instead of yes. Or ain't instead of isn't.....same difference.

Answer 33

After watching a show like "Honey Boo Boo" that has to have subtitles in it, you dare ask this nonsense?

Answer 34

***...you are so right...

Answer 35

This is a bit stereotypical if you ask me. I know several black people who say "ask". I actually have yet to hear one say it the way you mentioned.