![]() ![]() The popularity of this pronunciation faded in the North early in the 19th century as it became more common in the South. "In American English, the /aks/ pronunciation was originally dominant in New England. "Metathesis is usually a slip of the tongue, but (as in the cases of /asteriks/ and /nukular/) it can become a variant of the original word. This happens all the time in spoken language (think 'nuclear' pronounced as /nukular/ and 'asterisk' pronounced as /asteriks/). Metathesis is what occurs when two sounds or syllables switch places in a word. The Old English verb ' ascian' underwent a normal linguistic process called metathesis sometime in the 14th century. "While the pronunciation /aks/ for 'ask' is not considered standard, it is a very common regional pronunciation with a long history. ![]() Metathesis in the Pronunciation of "Ask" as /aks/.Plett, Literary Rhetoric: Concepts-Structures-Analyses", 2009) "A famous example from Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' is the figure of Caliban whose name originates from a phonological metathesis of /n/ and /l/ in 'cannibal.'" (Heinrich F. Tony might hound me about a particular piece of verbal stupidity, some word that I could not get my mouth around, such as 'spaghetti" or 'radiator' (which came out 'pisketti' and 'elevator')." (Christopher Lukas, "Blue Genes: A Memoir of Loss and Survival", 2008) "We played well together in the earliest days, though occasionally our jocund recreation became antagonistic. For example, if and find themselves in the same word, they might swap places, too-'renumeration' in place of 'remuneration,' 'aminal' in place of 'animal' and 'emeny' in place of 'enemy.' Most of us, I suspect, are guilty of the pronunciation 'anenome.' These days, historically accurate 'anemone' is rare and to many sounds rather odd." (Kate Burridge, "Gift of the Gob: Morsels of English Language History, 2011) "Other typical shifters are nasal sounds. The metathesis of a sound and a syllable boundary in the word 'another' leads to the reinterpretation of original 'an other' as 'a nother,' especially in the expression 'a whole nother thing.'" (John Algeo and Thomas Pyles, "The Origins and Development of the English Language", 2010) The television personality Oprah was originally named Orpah, after one of the two daughters-in-law of the Biblical Naomi (Ruth 1.4), but the 'rp' got metathesized to 'pr,' producing the well-known name. 'Tax' and 'task' are variant developments of a single form, with the (represented in spelling by x) metathesized in the second word to -tax, after all, is a task all of us must meet. "The order of sounds can be changed in a process called metathesis. "Wasp used to be 'waps' bird used to be 'brid' and horse used to be 'hros.' Remember this the next time you hear someone complaining about 'aks' for ask or 'nucular' for nuclear, or even 'perscription.' It's called metathesis, and it's a very common, perfectly natural process." (David Shariatmadari, "Eight Pronunciation Errors That Made the English Language What It Is Today" The Guardian, March 2014). ![]()
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