Piotr:
>The verb <ascian> had the variant <axian> already in Old English, and >"ax"
>for "ask" is still quite widespread in English dialects. There >is evidence
>that it was considered the regular pronunciation by >17th-century
>orthoepists.
If I may interject and unabashedly derail this topic, a good Guyanese friend
of mine still pronounces it "axe". Of course, this guy is a hotbed of other
nifty and/or archaic speech patterns. He also tends to combine words in the
strangest way like "to change up" instead of just "to change", or funny
sayings like "keepin' so mucha noise" which would be translated into my
dialect as "makin' a whole buncha racket". Oh, I almost forgot the cutest
thing of all. He says "I have a nozzy feelin'" instead of saying "I'm
nauseous", "I'm so in a mood to blow chunks" or "My stomach is painting your
portrait. Wanna see?". I love it!
He told a story once that when he first came to Canada, he was with his
cousin and there was a thick fog outside. So, naturally, he said without
thinking, "Hey, cozin. It's all faggy outside." He eventually learned not to
say that again. Of course, how would he know? A fag is a cigarette and in
Guyana homosexuals are known as "anti-men" (I guess they don't get too many
butch ones like me, go figure :)
And I never knew there were orthopedists in the 17th-century. Cool. You
learn something knew every day.
- gLeN
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