arks or ask

[bwfcolinh58]

why do coloured people seem to say aks,arks,
instead of ask?
is it a form of dialect

[Quizmonster]

Until around 1600, the regular literary form of the verb meaning �ask' was 'ax', based on earlier forms 'acsian' or 'axian'. 'Ax' remained until then the commonest form throughout the Midlands and Southern England, whilst 'ask' was essentially just the Northern form of the word.
It is, therefore, not just confined to specific racial groups but - even now - largely dialectal. I believe 'aks' is still quite commonly used in Lancashire, for example.

[Viz]

I know a chap from the eastend of London, (who lives in NZ now) who pronounces ask as "ast "
I fink he gotta a new mota too!

[SteveD]

I think that it's a Caribbean "thing" rather than a usage of all "coloured people".

Read Wikipedia's take on it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Creole

(Scroll down to "Phonology").

The linguistic term seems to be metathesis.

[Narolines]

Did you have any particular colour of people in mind? Blue? Purple? I was going to say I'd never seen any people of no colour, but I wouldn't, would I? They'd be invisible.......

[serendipity1]

your just being silly now some people use the term " coloured" as they feel they are being polite , its not necessarily racist , why do people have to assume the worst all the time and why do people have to get so defensive / i find it so annoying, it took me a long time to use the term black instead of coloured

[Narolines]

If, like me, you'd spent a teaching career working with the black and Asian communities in a large city, I'm sure you wouldn't regard it as "being silly". Let me tell you, the race riots of the mid to late 80s were not "silly" - I was there, and some days I wondered if I was going to get home and see the next day. I'm not being "defensive" - I'm being realistic.

[serendipity1]

of course racism is serious , im not disputing that i think you are overreacting to someones polite or embarassed term for "black" thats all. jeez!!

[skyhi9921]

i think its just different pronounciations
as for this racism thing some people prefer to be called coloured than black i know a few people who call themselves coloured its just what people prefer i think and u just have to be sensitive to that

[BBWCHATT]

We have gotten so politically correct that is difficult to even have a conversation anymore. Just for the record - I am still NOT offended when someone calls me short or fat or old - I am all of those things - NOT calling me them won't change that!!! Here in the USA a lot of the black people say ax now and seem to have lost the ability to pronounce the letter D - when I was younger that was not the way it was - they could say ask and pronounce a D.