Of course, we could move towards making the spellings more in line with pronunciations, but historically spelling reform has failed terribly, just ask Shaw. Even naturally occurring spelling changes, like those emerging from texting and instant messaging face stiff resistance. Consider how different the vowels in British English and American English are. Our non-really-phonetic spelling system masks those differences and makes communication easier across dialectal boundaries.
A truly phonetic system would actually make reading more difficult and slower, since one word could be represented in a large number of different ways. But I also think there needs to be a realization that the spelling system is partly arbitrary. Will people do it anyway? As for avoiding stigmatized features in language… as long as there are social groupings there will be linguistic markers used to show identity with various groups.
And the markers for the marginalized groups whether based on gender, ethnicity, social class or other factors will acquire a stigma. It is a verb form that has been in English since the beginning. Some folks have suggested that it is a case of inverting sounds or, metathesis, which crept into the language. Both forms of the verb have been present in English since it was Old English. Each group of Old English speakers passed on their preferred verb form to their descendants till the present.
That is not metathesis. That is an unbroken chain of use. Both forms of the verb evolved according to linguistic norms which parallel to each other. The primary place we learn to speak is in the home. So the that fact that the two versions has been passed down in an unbroken chain of use is more a testament to continuity in the face of a group of prescriptive grammarians in the 18th century dictating to millions of people that the way they and their grandparents spoke is incorrect.
In America we have gone a step beyond grammar discussion and made it about race and social status but for the millions of people in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, etc.
Really, this is a case of synonyms. Ultimately, we are discussing a question of style that has become associated with group identity, social standing, and to various degrees education.
What about the word asterisk. I pronounce it the way it is spelled but, for the most part, only hear it pronounced astrick. This is a good example of phonetic reduction. Some sounds are deleted so that aa-s-t-e-r-ih-s-k becomes aa-s-t-r-ih-k. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account.
You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Skip to content Do you know which one of these forms is the correct one? You sure about that? Like this: Like Loading Published by Rachael Tatman. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public.
Name required. Follow Following. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Have a nice sunday. Artrella Banned BA. Edwin said:. It's a dialect of English called Ebonics.
Your native language is English and you live in Philadelphia and you don't know what Ebonics is? How can that be? Axe is definitely non-standard, but typical of ordinary African American working class pronunciation. The term Ebonics was coined by people who believed that African American children would do better in American schools if their dialect were recognized as a perfectly legitimate dialect of American English, with its own vocabulary and grammar, and that it should be given a name and be taught as such.
Others believe that all schools in this country should teach only standard American English and that it should be obligatory for every public official except the ignoramus in the White House, of course to speak only standard English. I believe, incidentally, that its fine to speak dialect in some contexts, but that schools should also prepare kids to speak and write the standard versions of the languages of their countries.
I think most people would agree. US English, Palestinian Arabic bilingual. David said:. In fact in day to day talk I use some Ebonics, but that one phrase I found quite unusuall and I did not know what it meant.
I wasn't sure if it was Ebonics or perhaps it was a slang term used to say ASKed you question with a hidden meaning Artrella said:. Hi Edwin! That link is great! I didn't know this existed, I thought it was just mispelling or mispronunciation!! Hello, Furthermore, it is quite redondant to say "ask a question. By saying "ask" you're already implying that it is going to be a question. I think it's better to say "Can I ask you something?
Edher said:. Furthermore, it is quite redondant to say "ask a question. Tobycek Senior Member England, English. This use of "axe" is not confined to America. It's common among many West Indian patois, and can be found in any British city which has or has had a large West Indian population. Nick said:. Well, no. They could be asking for a favor or something else.
Can I ask you for something? Alberta--TGE te gato English. Hi all; Saying.. You might want an answer to a question that the person might find offensive There have only been a FEW instances where I have said.. May I ask you a question..
Nevertheless, people still ask questions all the time and will continue to do so. Especially in these fora. I imagine the translation of hacer una pregunta is ask a question. It is certainly not ''make a question. There's nothing wrong with redundancy. In fact, much of natural speech is redundant. Most uses of gender, tenses, number, articles are purely redundant.
It may be logically redundant, but language is not math. What do you suggest we use to replace this simple English sentence: "May I ask you a question?
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