"axe" for "ask"

[Kathleen E. Miller]

A Latina employee of the City of Alexandria, VA does the exact same thing.
She said "axe" about 5 times in a story to a co-worker while I stood at the
window waiting for the "locality sticker" for my bike. I've heard Rosie
Perez do it too, but I don't know if the accent in "It Could Happen To You"
is the way she really speaks.

Kathleen E. Miller
Research Assistant to William Safire
The New York Times


At 03:56 PM 1/3/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>A great client of ours with a soft, charming
>Long Island accent flips the "k" and "s" around
>in "ask" so that it comes out as "axe." Her
>co-worker, however, also blessed with this
>exquisite accent, does not.
>
>The "axer" has an Italian surname, so I would
>hazard to guess that she is not African-American.
>(I had always thought this sort of consonant
>switching was limited to the African-American
>community.)
>
>Is this known as a feature of "Long Islandese,"
>or would you rather call it a peculiar feature of
>my client's idiolect?
>
>Best,
>Don