People Have Been Saying “Ax” Instead of “Ask” for 1,200 Years

[Suppressed]

People Have Been Saying “Ax” Instead of “Ask” for 1,200 Years
“Ax” for “ask” isn’t wrong, it’s just different

Geoffrey Chaucer, the “Father of English Literature,” said “ax.” (UK Government Art Collection, artist unknown)

By Colin Schultz
smithsonian.com
February 6, 2014

[...]

“The people who use the ax pronunciation are using the pronunciation that has been handed down, in an unbroken form, for a thousand years,” says Jesse Shiedlower from the American Dialect Society to NPR.

“It is not a new thing; it is not a mistake,” he says. “It is a regular feature of English.”

Sheidlower says you can trace “ax” back to the eighth century. The pronunciation derives from the Old English verb “acsian.” Chaucer used “ax.” It’s in the first complete English translation of the Bible (the Coverdale Bible): ” ‘Axe and it shall be given.’

As we’ve explored previously, the English accent that dominated at the time of Shakespeare have largely disappeared, along with the pronunciations in which the bard’s tales were meant to be read. The changes in pitch and stress that come to define modern accents have broken some of Shakespeare’s puns, and left his jokes without a punchline.

[...]

[WingNot]

That being the case he must have found the same for "Dindu" and "nuffin" back 1000 years.

[WarmPotato]

That being the case he must have found the same for "Dindu" and "nuffin" back 1000 years.

LMAO! 

[Smokin Joe]

People Have Been Saying “Ax” Instead of “Ask” for 1,200 Years
“Ax” for “ask” isn’t wrong, it’s just different

Geoffrey Chaucer, the “Father of English Literature,” said “ax.” (UK Government Art Collection, artist unknown)

By Colin Schultz
smithsonian.com
February 6, 2014

[...]

“The people who use the ax pronunciation are using the pronunciation that has been handed down, in an unbroken form, for a thousand years,” says Jesse Shiedlower from the American Dialect Society to NPR.

As we’ve explored previously, the English accent that dominated at the time of Shakespeare have largely disappeared, along with the pronunciations in which the bard’s tales were meant to be read. The changes in pitch and stress that come to define modern accents have broken some of Shakespeare’s puns, and left his jokes without a punchline.

[...]

Thomas Bowdler's efforts removed many of the jokes from Shakespeare, and often only the more obscure puns may remain. (Thereby hangs a tail...)

[andy58-in-nh]