P M Qs ... Usual Slaughtering Of Sir Beer Of Course.......

[ToraToraTora]

...but something else caught my attention this week. A Labour MP stood up and asked for some sort of apology for Slavery on behalf of the late (barmy) Bernie Grant. That didn't surprise me what did is that an MP did not know how to pronounce the word "Ask" - she kept saying "aks" aaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhh!

[naomi24]

Rubbish. What good are apologies from people who weren’t there? Does that change anything? No. Load of PC nonsense.

[tomus42]

// Nonsense - it is clearly spelled a - s - k which must be pronounced 'arsk' //

Well, it should be pronounced 'ask' then shouldn't it. I don't see an R or an H, or more than one A in it.

[Peter Pedant]

a rather straightforward point on linguistic variation
has been given the standard AB treatment - ho hum, that is normal then

Tomus - so father is different to farther ? - implies an interesting trend of losing the post-vocalic 'r' . It has got weaker so that now father=farther. But ( or and) as implied with 'ask' is it class ( yes that is clarss) related? or is it geographical ?

Dorset ( Darzet aaaaarrrrrr!) shows post-vocalic strengthening ( fortition) - incredz makes it comprehensible to a lot ( lorra) people.

see Janet HOlmes, introduction to sociolinguistics

[douglas9401]

Latest reports from Hades reveal that Bernie now goes by Burnie

[tomus42]

You agree with me Peter. Words can be pronounced differently by different people and they can both be correct. That is the point I was making to whoever it was that said that silly thing about ask being pronounced arsk rather than aks with no hint of irony.

[THECORBYLOON]

I pronounce "ask" with a short "a" as in, "ass" but some pronounce it with a long "a" to sound like the mainly English pronunciation of "a" in "parse".

There are similar differences in the pronunciation of, "aks". Some pronounce it as it's spelt or how English folk tend to pronounce, "arks".

They are different words with different pronunciations but they mean the same thing.

Si

[Peter Pedant]

Tired of reading the same old from the same old?
Try this

[Peter Pedant]

Dis is abart commnicating with things other than words
That there is a message in using aks instead of ask
which says something to her constituents
NOT - I am posh now so I used posh language like Dear Old Boris ( Eton and Oxford)
But I am representing my voters point of view

from J A Holmes, sociolinguistics

[Peter Pedant]

yes I agree with you Tomus
you have made some sensible points
made in standard London English
and not in street Jamaican
dat eez duh impartant teeng

same content but difft import as it is in BVE ( Black vernac english)