why do many african-americans pronounce “asked” as axed?

Though “aks” is now considered incorrect (or ‘substandard’) English, it is NOT the result of an ignorant mistake, and it was not invented by the/an African-American community. Rather, it is simply a dialectal variation within English. In fact, BOTH “aks” and “ask” are found in Old English and in the Middle English writing of Chaucer.

In 17th century England, “aks” was the standard in one of the four major British dialects of the early American settlers.

“From 1642-1675 the Royalists, also called Cavaliers, fled from the south and southwest England with their indentured servants and settled in Virginia when the English Civil War against Charles I began. They brought with them their south England drawl (a drawing out of the vowels); they also brought such phrases as aksed (instead of asked), and ain’t (instead of isn’t). Royalists later settled the Carolinas as well. Southern English speech laid the foundation for the development of American Tidewater speech, or Coastal Southern English.”

http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/AmericanDialects.htm

Since it was this group that held most of the black slaves, –including “aks”– is the source of that pronunciation among certain parts of the black population today.

Many African-Americans speak a form of English called ‘Ebon'(by them), which actually means ‘black’.

This has gone on for such a time that ‘axed’ has become common in even black communities who don’t use ‘ebon’.

It’s used exclusively within the ‘black’ community or possibly sometimes so that others can’t understand what they are saying. There’s no law against that !! However, it’s sometimes rude in company of other ‘races’.

I’ll leave it at that.

I dont know, but they say that New Englanders do it to, and its true…I am from New England and we do say it that way…And i am an EDUCATED African American….Well so far, never had less than an A in any class….cept for AP Bio…ugh….but everyone has weird ways of saying words….but to me, its hard to say the s…like that!

No… there is no longer a organic and organic reason. there is no longer even a correlation. it truly is like me asserting, “Is there a organic and organic reason previous white men (like stable ol’ George W.) pronounce nuclear ‘noo-kyoo-lar'”? it truly is in basic terms their determination. i in my view asked the nookyular quesiton to my english prof a pair years in the past. She advised me one possibility could be that there are greater -oolar sounds interior the english language than there are -lee ar. as an occasion, binocular, monocular, commonly used, mind-blowing etc… some could be pronounced with ask/asked. “Sk” variety of sounds… awkward i assume… inflicting some human beings, regardless of nationality, to % to modify the two sounds to greater suitable in wonderful condition the development of the english language. think of tax, max, packs, lax, etcc… Now attempt to think of of a observe with the “sk” sounds in it. Kinda difficult… observe, there is largely one variety of human, homo sapien. regardless of shade, nationality, custom, we are each of a similar. the transformations interior the way we communicate, work together, think of, etc… are actually not GENETIC. they’re discovered by way of custom, in the process the human beings around us. it is in basic terms my 2 cents.

Honestly, my caucasian, gifted, 9yo pronounces it that way – he just has trouble pronouncing “sk” sounds. Also, some areas of the country commonly pronounce it that way – it’s just dialect.

Well, we don’t all pronounce it that way. I know some white people who pronounce it that way. The way people speak is highly regional anyway.

i asked my good friend that… and she’s been practicing it “the right way”.

at the same time she wanted to know why white people pronounce aunt incorrectly. as most, i say ANT rather than the correct way… AUnt (as in australia)

people’s brain assign a sound to meaning. so if uneducated people keep saying axed, then children who speak with them will also say axed. just like southern people say y’all, and australian people say krikey or whatever it is they say.

Lack of education.

it takes too much effort to talk with some intellect i guess