Why do people pronounce words as aks and ekspecially?

Question

What has happened to these 2 words?

Ask is pronounced as AKS or AXE
Especially is pronounced as EKSPECIALLY or EXPECIALLY

Answer 1

The pronunciation "aks" is now considered at best "non-standard" English. But it does NOT stem from lack of education -- it is actually a dialectal variant that goes WAY back. You will find BOTH "aks" and "ask" in the Middle English writings of Chaucer, and back into Old English. So historically it is not possible to say that one of the pronunciations was "correct" and the other a mistake.

This sort of exchanging of sounds in words, called "metathesis", is actually quite common in human language. Sometimes it results in the whole language changing a word -- Old English had "brid" and "hros", but now they are "bird" and "horse" (compare also "third" which was once "thridde", matching "three").

Why is the order of sounds changed? Sometimes it IS a simple mistake (as in children saying "pisghetti" for "spaghetti") But not necessarily. It is almost always because changing the order makes the word easier to pronounce (at least in a particular dialect). That's why we say "i-urn" for "iron" (though when the second syllable has the accent we are able to say "i-RON-ic"), and "comterbul" or "comftubul" for "comfortable". Sometimes the change takes place because the original sound combination is very unusual for the language, so the word is pronounced to match a familiar combination. That explains people [including THREE of our Presidents!] saying "nukyelar" for "nuclear" (cf. "muscular") and the use of "ex-specially" (many English words begin with "ex' [from Latin]).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metathesis_(linguistics)
http://sps.k12.mo.us/khs/linguistics/lingtrms.htm#M

Answer 2

I think a lot of rappers use the word AKS because they want to represent the ethnic dialect they grew up with, and being the great role models that they are they in turn encourage most of the retarded youth that are running around these days to use these kind of words in their everyday vocabulary.

Answer 3

it depends on their dialect and the way their parents taught them to say the words.. also they may have a speach problem and be unable to pronounce certain sounds.

Answer 4

Let us not forget "supposably".

"Axe" instead of "ask" tends to just be part of ethnic dialect so that doesn't bother me so much.

But "supposably" makes me want to rip my eyeballs out and throw them at the offender.

Answer 5

I KNOW! It drives me CRAZY!! I also hate excape, simular, supposably and irregardless. Oh, and lasheer instead of last year. And why do so many people say "should of" rather than "should have"??? Aaaaaaargh!!!

Answer 6

i also have a question like this:
some ppl use THEN instead of THAN

as in
it's better then

Answer 7

Because they are uneducated. My favorite is "pacifically." (specifically) I also get annoyed with "mis-chee-vious", "disregardless," and "nuc-U-lar" (it's nuclear! Long e!)