Why are British people of African descent incapable of saying the word "ASK" this is not racist, they say AKS

Answer 1

My mom says "carntoons" instead of cartoons.

Answer 2

It's just an accent, believe it or not everyone has one. Langauges evolve, words get changed. There's such a seperation between a lot of white and black people that in the most segregated areas, the langauge changed differently. It's a headache to try and get the kids I tutor to spell "ask" though... they want to spell it "aks" The other one that I have a lot of problems with is saying "scr-" instead of "str-" like "street" gets written "screet."

Answer 3

People talk differently. I pronounce my 'th's' as 'f's' because I'm tongue tied (you cant see it until I try to stick my tongue out and it doesnt go very far).

What do you mean by British people of African desent? Is it someone who was brought up in Africa and moved here because I think people with a South African dialect pronounce it this way and its just the difference between different languages around the world!

Answer 4

It's not just British people of an African descent, there is a black teacher in Chicago, who is getting Afro-Americans to speak proper English and even has a book out called "Ax or Ask ?". So personally I wouldn't worry about it.

Answer 5

No it's not racist, just a little narrow minded.

People pronounce things differently all the time. Thats what sets people apart & makes them individual.

I have heard indigenous British children speaking like Jamaicans. Maybe you should be complaining about that?

Answer 6

i dont think the physiological ' thickness' of the tongue is an issue, if people meant 'tognue thickness' as alegorically for something else then its another story.
I don't see it as annoying, more like a colorful fumbling that should not be construed as an 'incapability'
I think it has to do with -syntax or the way words as concepts are seen/spoken or understood; then spoken.
See one's original language (say, Zimbabuean or any other asian language) could be worded, designed and pronounced /enunciated differently in a native manner; we have a tendency to use that syntax or language concept base and apply it to the new language that we are now using. Which accounts for the apparent mispronunciation.
On a personal note though I hope people become more tolerant if not forgiving for what I think is a very trivial issue such as pronunciation.

Answer 7

a bit narrow minded eh?

the language is a living evolving entity - yeah, it annoys me sometimes when I hear people mangling it but that's just a sign of me getting older and less tollerant in my old age.

transposing a few letters in the odd word is nothing - what about the indecipherable text shorthand that's insinuating itself everywhere.

Had a wee rant - now to get back on track - lighten up and go with the flow

Answer 8

My sister had an African-American professor who said it that way. I don't know if him being of African origin had anything to do with it, though. Some people might develop certain habits in childhood that are not corrected and carry on in an individual's life later on.

Answer 9

Perhaps you just have met a few who mispronounce. I know in UK for instance I have met loads of people who can't pronounce the word asterisk but call it aksterisk but you can't go round generalising about any race or nationality.

Answer 10

What if some of them do? People from all over the UK have different accents and say words differently!

Answer 11

It's called an accent. And your question isn't racist? Of course it is. Why not ask why Glasweigians say "birrrrrd", Geordies "trooozaz" or Londoners "owzziss"?