Re: Linguistics
From: Rafael Haciski (haciski@earthlink.net)
Wed Jun 25 11:20:38 2008
Excellent!
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 25, 2008, at 9:44, Kaycnm@aol.com wrote:
>
> Horrified as I am, I can't resist asking, why logical?
> Steve Raymond
>
> [edit] S-cluster metathesis
>
> S-cluster metathesis is the nonstandard metathesis of final
> consonant clusters starting with /s/ occurring in African American
> Vernacular English. [13]
>
> For AAVE speakers with S-cluster metathesis the following words can
> undergo the following changes:
>
> ask → /æks/
> grasp → /græps/
> wasp → /wÉ‘Ëps/
> gasp → /gæps/
> S-cluster metathesis is lexically determined.
>
> The above pronunciations in fact have a long history, and all the
> metathesised forms have existed in English for around as long as the
> words themselves, with varying degrees of acceptance.
>
> For example, the Old English verb áscian also appeared as acsian, an
> d both forms continued into Middle English. The two forms co-existed
> and evolved separately in various regions of England, and later Ame
> rica. The variant ascian gives us the modern standard English ask, b
> ut the form "axe", probably derived from Old English acsian, appears
> in Chaucer: "I axe, why the fyfte man Was nought housband to the Sa
> maritan?" (Wife of Bath's Prologue, 1386.) It was considered accepta
> ble in literary English until about 1600 [14] and can still be found
> in some dialects of English including African American Vernacular E
> nglish. It is, however, one of the most stigmatized features of AAVE
> , often commented on by teachers. It also persists in Ulster Scots a
> s /aks/ and Jamaican English as /aËks/, from where it has entered th
> e London dialect of British English as /É‘Ëks/.
>
> So, Joe, I guess it is axe.
>
> Kay Johnson, CNM
> Duluth, GA
> ************************************************
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