Ask: Past, Present, and Future Perspective

Some time ago, a correspondent asked about the varied pronunciations for the word ask. "Why do people say axe instead of ask?" I was not sure how to respond; this query goes beyond my field of expertise. Finally I did some exploring, accessing a new book on language variation and several excellent websites (see links and references). What I found was interesting and surprising. Below, I discuss only the theory that appears to be the least speculative, but keep in mind that scholars are still investigating this topic.

(Note: Letters inside slash marks indicate the pronunciation of a word. In student-friendly terms, the pronunciation for cup would be shown as /kup/, for example.)

This question is relevant to Vocabulogic because the underlying query is whether or not ask pronounced /aks/ is even a word. The question seems to be a popular one, too: When I entered the search term "pronounce ask" I got 4, 790,000 results from Google.  On the first page of results were the following headlines, among others:

• "I axe you, why can't Blacks pronounce the word ask?"
• "Why can't some people pronounce ask properly?" 

Some headlines and/or related comments were not kind. Language indexes all kinds of histories, practices, and stereotypes; this can evoke strong feelings, often nourished by misinformation. 

The pronunciation /aks/ might be discussed as a nonstandardized alternative for /ask/. It is not slang. We can examine this phenomenon through three lenses: the past, the present, and the future.

The word ask flows from old Germanic roots. Various  forerunners of ask were used by Anglo-Saxon writers (a form of Germanic) during the period known as Old English. Anglo-Saxon writers preferred to begin their word for ask with sounds similar to /aks/. Two different forms of the word appeared in Beowulf, ācsian and āxian, each one representing the pronunciation more similar to the modern-day /aks/. This epic poem dates to about the eighth century, but the only known print was made between 1000-1100 (dates are debated).

About 700 years ago, during Middle English, Chaucer included three different spellings for the word in Canterbury Tales. Here is one example, with the axe-variant:

Axe not why : for tho' thou axe me
I wol not tellen goddes privetee.
(Chaucer, Miller's Tale, v3557)

In American history, /aks/ was fairly common in New England and in the South, across cultures. Both pronunciations were used, but at some point /ask/ was standardized.

Today, if we say /aks/ for the word spelled ask we are reversing two adjacent sounds. This is called metathesis, an alteration in the normal sequence of elements, especially sounds (Crystal, 1995, p. 455).  This phenomenon occurs more frequently in words with unusual sound structure. We frequently hear neighboring sounds reversed in nuclear, jewelry, and realtor. Reversal of sounds in ask might be intuitive: There is some thought that it is mechanically easier to articulate /aks/ compared to /ask/.

At present, the pronunciation /aks/ for ask is heard across numerous dialects. Professors Anne Charity Hudley and Christine Mallinson (2011) explain it thus:

While the pronunciation of ask as axe is considered to be a nonstandardized pronunciation today, it is nevertheless very common. Many African Americans pronounce ask as axe, as do many speakers in the South, in Appalachia, in other pockets of the United States, in the Caribbean, and in parts of the United Kingdom. Part of the reason that this pronunciation is almost instantly noticed when it is used by African Americans is because it has come to be viewed as a stereotyped feature of African American English. (p. 80)

Peering into the future involves theory-driven conjecture. In The Story of Human Language, linguist John McWhorter (2004) hypothesized that within about 200 years the majority of Americans will say /aks/ for ask. Why? He suggested that saying /ks/ is easier, mechanically. Consider how easily we say words like fox, box, six, mix, wax, tax. One must work harder to articulate the final sounds /sk/ as in ask, desk, and mask. It may be easier to say /aks/ because after the vowel, we start at the back of the mouth for the /k/ sound and move to the front for /s/, whereas we must move backward in the mouth, from /s/ to /k/ when we say /ask/. Notice, too, there are not many words that end with the sound /sk/; I can think of ask, mask, task, brisk, desk, tusk, musk. It becomes even harder to say these words in plural form: Try articulating desks three times. It is true that if we make plural the words that end with /k/ we find many more words ending with /ks/, as in tracks, blocks, tricks, decks, ducks, likes, bakes, etc. But is that comparable? After all, there is a morpheme barrier between the base word and the final plural marker, -s. This morpheme barrier provides a cognitive clue that aides with speech, yes? 

Educational implications: Through discussion, educators can illuminate language as a living, morphing entity and a part of our identity. Hopefully, these insights will help older students and beginning teachers appreciate and understand the rich history and the broad diversity of language. Anne Charity Hudley and Christine Mallinson (2011) provide several more essential implications for teachers:

When working with African American English-speaking students who may not be confident in their use of standardized English and who may be engaging in verbal behaviors that vary from the language patterns that are expected to be used in school settings, it is important not to assume that variation in student's communication patterns signals low intelligence, uncooperativeness, or hostility. Rather, students may be using features of African American English to assert their identity. Students gain confidence and are able to enjoy academic and social success when they know and recognize academic English forms and when they recognize and value the language patterns they bring with them to school. (p. 100)

References:

Web-based sources:

Read Axing for trouble: Beowulf and metathesis at Stæfcræft & Vyākaraṇ, where linguist Benjamin Slade provides excerpts from the original texts of Beowulf and Canterbury Tales. 

Read The Atlantic, where Ta-Nehisi, senior editor for the journal, discusses conversate and /aks/ with Jesse Sheidlower, editor for Oxford Dictionaries.

Read Karen Nakumura's brief post at Photoethnography.

Listen to a podcast at With Good Reason, where several experts discuss "Spoken Soul: Black English in the Classroom" (the pronunciation of ask is addressed about 10 minutes into the podcast by linguist Anne Charity Hudley).

For a student-friendly story of ask, read Words at Random: The Maven’s Word of the Day.   

For more on language variation in general, see the prior post: Dialect, Slang, Jargon, and Register. 

Books:

Charity Hudley, A. H. & Mallinson, C. (2011). Understanding English Language Variation in US Schools. Teachers College Press: New York.

Crystal, D. (1995). The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language. Cambridge University Press.

McWhorter, J. (2004). The great courses: Social sciences: The story of human language (audio lectures). The Teaching Company.

Dialect, Slang, Jargon, Register: Implications for Instruction

minor updates, including links and images 11-8-25

 

Developing word consciousness and communication skills in intermediate and secondary grades includes learning about dialect, slang, jargon, and register. Students need to become increasingly metacognitive with respect to these concepts. In this post, I juxtapose the four terms, speaking broadly. For more depth, follow the links. (Also, note the comment section on the somewhat negative connotations of the term dialect.)

 
Dialect:  The Oxford Concise Dictionary defines dialect as, “a form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group."  For example, in the American West it’s fireflies rather than lightning bugs (Katz, 2016). Dialects are noted by variations in phonology, phonetics, morphology, syntax and vocabulary. Linguists Odell, Vacca, and Hobbs (2007, p. 939) make a vital point:

"Everyone uses a dialect, and no dialect
is better or worse than another."

Fireflies and Lightning Bugs map by Josh Katz 2016

In the US, many dialects or varieties of English are heard: Southern English, Appalachian English, African American English, New York City English, Chicano English, California Surfer Dude and Valley Girl English, Boston English, etc. Overseas, more varieties of English are spoken, including Australian English, Cockney English, Jamaican English, and so forth. 

 

 To hear varieties of English from all over the world visit The International Dialects of English Archives. Click the links in the sidebar and listen to the audio clips. Let your students listen, too. It is fascinating -- and free. Also, scholars at the University of Wisconsin created the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE). This outstanding resource defines regional words and displays maps showing where specific words are spoken in America. Visit the DARE website. View the educational resources. Take the synonym quiz. (I DAREsay, "It ain't gonna be easy!")

African American English (AAE) is a dialect. However, AAE is an ethnic dialect rather than a regional dialect. "An ethnic dialect is a speech pattern of a special community that has preserved some of its heritage from the past" (Odell et al., 2007, p. 939). According to Denham and Lobeck (2009), ethnic dialects often cross regions and are/were influenced by isolation and/or segregation. For further reading,  see The diversity of English in America, published by Popular Linguistics.

To learn about Southern English and African American English, check out Understanding English Language Variation in U.S. Schools. Authors Anne Charity Hudley and Christine Mallinson are experts in their field, providing teaching strategies as well as suggestions for assessment and application. In their book, they speak not of standard English but of standardized English:

The term standardized English makes the parallel that just as specific types of knowledge are valued on standardized tests, so, too are specific types of language valued within the educational system (p. 12)

Slang: Carl Sandburg poetically wrote, "Slang is language which takes off its coat, spits on its hands and goes to work" (1959). Slang words and phrases are highly colloquial and informal in type, occurring more often in speech than in print. Slang consists either of newly crafted words or of existing words employed in a special sense. Slang often manages to make the abstract concrete and memorable, by employing imagery. For example, the phrase chill out brings to mind a hothead on ice--far more picturesque than compose yourself. 

Often, slang words have a short shelf life, fading away after a generation. Some slang words have endured and entered the general lexicon, including bogus, geek, mob, hubbub, and rowdy. Some slang words are used across dialects. Consider the word cool. Is it heard in every dialect of English?

A British lexicographer described 15 reasons people used slang nearly a century ago (Partridge, 1933). His research is dated, but these reasons may still hold true today. Below, I list the first three reasons and the last reason. Notice how nicely the first three ideas lend themselves to prompting creativity, identity, word consciousness, and love for language.

1) "In sheer high spirits, by the young in heart as well as by the young in years; 'just for the fun of the thing'; in playfulness or waggishness."

2) As an exercise either in wit and ingenuity or in humour. (The motive behind this is usually self-display or snobbishness, emulation or responsiveness, delight in virtuosity.)

3) 'To be different'; to be novel. 

15) To be secret--not understood by those around one. (Children, students, lovers, members of political secret societies, criminals in or out of prison...)

Students might enjoy rhyming slang. According to David Crystal (1995), rhyming slang probably originated with the criminal underworld of London Cockneys in the mid-19th-Century. A few examples are provided below.

Rhyming Slang	Meaning
apples and pears	stairs
artful dodger	lodger
Cain and Abel	table
north and south	mouth
read and write	fight
trouble and strife	wife

Jargon: Jargon is the specific terminology used to support our interests and occupations. For the Vocabulogic readership, associated jargon includes semantics, pragmatics, morpheme, phoneme, analogy, conceptual, contextual, etc. The American Heritage Dictionary defines jargon as, "the language, especially the vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group: medical jargon" and also "language that is characterized by uncommon or pretentious vocabulary and convoluted syntax and is often vague in meaning."

Unlike most slang, academic jargon is typically not imaginative or picturesque. Too much of it might leave one feeling stifled, even oppressed. This might be why the suffix -ese elicits angst in words like legalese, acadamese, officialese, bureaucratese, etc.  Like some slang, jargon might keep outsiders out, serving to exclude.  Nonetheless, jargon has its place, enabling members of a group to communicate about their interests. 

 
Does enjoyable jargon exist? Some non-academic jargon is delightfully creative, as with the metaphoric trucker lingo: bear in the air, rubber duck, roller skate, alligator, etc. Also, because rhyming slang formed the vocabulary of a particular profession, might we also call it a form of jargon (perhaps "robber jargon")? I am not always certain where slang ends and jargon begins, but clearly, not all jargon consists of stuffy academic words.

Register: According to the American Heritage Dictionary, register is "a variety of language typically used in a specific type of communicative setting: an informal register; the register of scientific discourse." An informal register is typically used at home and at play. A more formal register is used in nonfiction texts, lecture halls, etc. There are also registers that fall somewhere between formal and informal. Formal language is used in legal proceedings and may also broadly refer to academic English. (See Academic Words Every Day.)

Applications: With older students, discuss language at the metacognitive level. Explore the linguistic, political, social and cultural aspects of language. Esteem every language variety. Language is personal--a part of our identity. Create an environment that treasures language and resounds with speech. (See Treated to Language.)

Instead of teaching that communication is either formal or informal, convey the notion of incremental shifts in formality. Use a horizontal scale, as inserted below, to show gradations of register, from quite informal to highly formalized and standardized. Let students converse in small groups to classify any given sample of speech or print. Discuss the rationale: What makes the communication more or less formal?

________________________________________________________________

less formal                                REGISTER                                  more formal  

Teach adolescents across dialects to select a suitable register for speaking and writing, depending on the audience and the goal. If the selected register is more formal, teach students to use academic vocabulary and syntax and to limit slang. This is a matter of pragmatics, of understanding the social application and function of language.

Teach students to recognize jargon. Adolescents might sort word cards, jargon versus slang versus general words. Also, teach students to recognize when someone is deliberately (or perhaps unintentionally) creating a lexical barrier with a plethora of professional jargon or an overabundance of academic English. 

 

S. Ebbers

 

References: 

Crystal, D. (1995). The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language. Cambridge University Press.

Denham, K., & Lobeck, A. (2009). Linguistics for everyone: An introduction. Boston: Cengage Learning.

 

Hudley, A. & Mallinson, C. (2010).  Understanding English language variation in U.S. schools (Multicultural Education Series). Teachers College Press. 

 

Katz, J. (2016). Speaking American: How Y’all, Youse, and You Guys Talk: a Visual Guide. Mariner Books.

Odell, L., Vacca, R., & Hobbs, R. (2007). Elements of language: Fifth course (teacher's edition). Austin, TX: Holt Rinehart and Winston.

Partridge, E. (1933). Slang: Today and Yesterday.  Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Sandburg, C. (1959, February 13). The New York Times.

Making the Most of Web 2.0 Tools to Support Students’ Generative Vocabulary Learning (Castek)

Jill Castek is a post-doctoral scholar with the Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading project at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley where she develops and researches integrated science and literacy curricula. Jill is a literacy specialist with a decade of experience working with striving and struggling readers in grades K-12, especially students who are learning English. Her classroom-based research examines the challenges and opportunities for reading, writing, and learning on the Internet and explores the contexts and conditions through which the new literacies of online reading comprehension are acquired.

Jim Baumann (University of Missouri) and Ed Kame’enui (University of Oregon) are editing a second edition of Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice (Guilford Press) to be published in 2011. Bridget Dalton (Vanderbilt University), Dana Grisham (National University) and I were invited to submit a piece that addressed special topics in vocabulary instruction.  In our chapter, Using Multimedia to Support Students’ Generative Vocabulary Learning (Castek, Dalton, & Grisham, in process) we suggest that the use of digital media in vocabulary learning should not only be receptive (e.g., viewing vocabulary graphics), but also generative (actively engaging students in using language and media to express themselves and to create products that represent their new knowledge). We assert that this type of vocabulary learning empowers students as agents of their own learning. The act of creation supports ownership, introduces authentic reasons for learning, and tangibly links reading, writing, and communication in ways that mirror learning outside of school. This post draws ideas from the chapter and suggests ways to promote students’ active word learning using Web 2.0 tools. In this post, I discuss three ways to utilize digital media to enhance word knowledge. 

Vocabulary Videos: Today’s students have grown up with YouTube as part of daily life. Consider having students’ produce their own vocabulary videos (or ‘vocab vids’) -- 60-second videos that situate word learning in a specific context.  The varied student-created examples found at VocabAhead (e.g., the entry for amble and the entry for headstrong) illustrate how video creation and multimodal expression make the word learning experience more memorable for both the video producers as well as the viewing audience. For tips and tools for creating videos, see the teacher page at VocabAhead.

Vocab vids illustrate how meaning can be communicated in 60 seconds or less, with few or no props. Bridget Dalton and a teacher colleague partnered to create a model that illustrates the power of video to illustrate word meanings (see Figure 1, below). Using a flip camera, they shot a video illustrating the word overwhelmed. The video opens with a shot of a desk piled high with books. The teacher is sitting on the floor, hidden by the desk. Suddenly, his hand appears, pulling a book off. More books disappear as the teacher pops up repeatedly, looking increasingly distressed. At the end, the teacher appears with a sign displaying the word overwhelm, saying, “I’m distressed, drowning in a deluge of books. This is an overwhelming amount of books to read! Can you tell I’m feeling totally overwhelmed?!” Note that all of the italicized words were found during a Web search the pair did to prepare for the video. They used different forms of the word (overwhelm, overwhelmed, overwhelming) and incorporated related words (distress and deluge) to aid in the development of concepts. The strategic embedding of a word into a web of multimodal meaning helps make the word learning experience more memorable for both the video producers and the viewing audience.

 Figure 1: Vocab Vid
iIllustrating overwhelmed. 








Simulate Twitter to Promote Target Word Usage: Today’s widespread twitter phenomenon tells us something important about language use and engagement. In 140 characters or less, information about “what’s happening now” can be shared instantly with an online community. The defining characteristics of a ‘tweet’ are brevity, timeliness, and the ability to instantly respond to others. Without actually creating twitter accounts, educators can bring twitter-like experiences into the classroom to expand vocabulary learning. 

To model a vocabulary related twitter, provide a target word or concept and challenge students to keep a related stream of tweets going as long as they can. Set the expectation that both target words and related words must to be used in each post. Provide a context such as a breaking news event, a topic you’re studying in class, or a book you are reading. To simulate twitter in a closed environment, try Wallwisher. Once the topic themed-wall is set up, this free online application does not require individuals to login and everyone can post together in a shared space. Like tweets, comment space is limited (Wallwisher allows 160 characters). 

The following interchange may serve as a tangible example. Imagine reading and watching online news reports about an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Students could then create a twitter- like stream to express reactions and questions, using the target words pollution and disaster. Before beginning, discuss the words’ meanings. Then talk through a few examples, as follows.

Twitter-like stream

Student 1: Bad news. An oil rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico. Pollution is going to be a problem.

Student 2: Oil will pollute the beaches. What a disaster!

Student 3: You can’t swim in polluted water.

Student 4: The seagulls and pelicans will be hurt by the oil. It gets on their feathers.

Twitter-like stream (examining the news event from the perspective of different stakeholders)

Shrimper: Major disaster. Oil rig blew and oil gushing in Gulf of Mexico. Pollution might wipe us out.

Oysterman: What about oyster beds? I have to fish. Polluted oyster beds mean no oysters. What a disaster for me and my customers.

Beach lover: Gulf Shores beach has black oil washing up. Seagulls coated. Can’t swim in polluted water.

Clean up crew: Dish detergent is the best thing to clean oil pollution from birds. Who knew?!!

Oil company: The faster we cap the oil rig, the faster the pollution stops. 

Have Fun with New Slang: The dynamic and inventive nature of language is dramatically evident in the torrent of new words we manage to create each year. While we all may feel the need to chillax (calm down and relax) in the face of students’ often unconventional vocabulary use, seize the opportunity to build word curiosity and playfulness. Two excellent Internet resources for learning about words and language are the Visual Thesaurus and the Oxford Dictionary of English. The latter posts a list each year of new words added to the dictionary. Another excellent resource is the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary.  Also, at Wordspy, Paul McFedries tracks published neologisms (new word creations, many of which are slang and/or linguistic blends). 

Technology and media can play an important role in developing students’ vocabulary through generative, multimodal expression. Giving students experience with the digital technologies required in the 21st century will be motivational as well as academically beneficial. 

References
Castek, J., Dalton, B., & Grisham, D. (in process). Using multimedia to support students’ generative vocabulary learning. In J. Baumann and E. Kame’enui (Eds.) Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Video: Word Formation Processes

We freely create new words without thinking too much about HOW it's done; we come by it naturally and take a curious delight in it. LOL, we get a fabjammin' kick out of it, all right, and the one with the greatest inpreciation of vocabulogic has the most fun!

This Sunday, I am pleased to publish a brief video discovered on YouTube. The author (PlatanoAmarillo03) is unknown to me, but she may be a linguistics student, a budding morphology expert. She synthesizes information with some humor and panache through the clever use of pictures and moving font types. Fair warning--the pace is quite fast and the voice is not loud, so turn up your speakers and prepare to focus.

PS. The video describes compound words composed of two words. True enough, but compounds can contain more than two words, as in ruby-throated hummingbird and son-in-law. Read more about compounds.

Enjoy!

Metalinguistic Awareness: Alliteration (video)

Metalinguistic awareness includes awareness of language at the level of the sound, the letter, the word, the phrase, the sentence, and the passage. Furthermore, metalinguistic awareness includes sensitivity to alliteration, rhyme, onomatopoeia, etc. Time spent becoming aware of these literary devices should theoretically contribute to interest in words, which in turn should promote vocabulary knowledge and ultimately, comprehension.There is not yet sufficient research to make this claim empirically, but the theory is sound (Nagy, 2007). 

Alliteration occurs when the beginning of each stressed syllable has the same sound (spelling may differ; it's the sound that matters). Remember Dragnet? Favored friends, in this flick Friday the fabled felon-finder fabricates fabulous phonemic fun with the famed Johnny Carson, speaking in fine form with a fairly unfathomable face. I found felicity in this fantastic phonfest. To watch the clip, go directly to MetaCafe: Copper Clappers.


Share the video with the class. Explicate the meaning of the passage and the alliterative words. Encourage students to work in pairs to write their own alliterative dialogue, sentences, or phrases. Verbalize. Let the room resound with the sounds of speech. With adjustment, this type of lesson applies across grades and content. Imagine an alliterative dialogue about Danny the Dinosaur, the signing of the Magna Carta, or the life cycle of a butterfly. 

As in everything, help the learner make connections across and within words and ideas. Example from video: Discuss how clappers, the swinging pendulum inside a bell, relates to the action of clapping hands. Making lexical links should help the learner own the word and develop vocabulogic. Discuss the word cop, slang for 'to steal' and link it to related phrases: to cop a plea, a cop out. Discuss what slang is, and how it is used.

Also visit World News: Alliteration. Or look up Peter Piper, picking pickles by the peck, and Sally, selling seashells at the seashore.

Enjoy the ever-exciting end of the year! (Vocalic alliteration begins with a vowel sound.) Got some alliteration? Please share!

Holiday Hodgepodge

Greetings! Hodgepodge served here, a savory seasonal mix. Hodgepodge is an alteration of Middle English hochepot, from an Old French word for 'stew' (American Heritage Dictionary).

**************************** 

Ever wonder about the meaning and etymology of nowell? With this word, we see how Latin, French, and English intermix within a family of words, and how spelling can deviate from the root. Click image to enlarge or print.

***********************

Cashmas is coming! Consider the logic behind this slang term, quoted from the interactive but unofficial Urban Dictionary (beware, some content not suitable for school). "Cashmas is a celebration of materialism in which its celebrants attempt to flatter or impress relatives, friends, and acquaintances with the extent of their purchasing power." When last checked, approval ratings for this term were 1020 thumbs up, 427 down. Having students rate novel words in similar fashion should build word consciousness, resulting in vocabulary growth.

****************************

Dickens is in the public domain. Visit Gutenberg.org to read A Christmas Carol, no charge. Visit Librivox.org to listen to the audio version, no charge. Hundreds more titles and authors are available. As educators, we can share these links with families and use them in schools. Prompt wide reading and active listening to expand word and world knowledge, something poor children typically lack (Biemiller, last post; Hart & Risley, 1995).

**************************** 

Now, lest Dickens sic his spirits on us, let’s make merry! Bring on the figgy pudding (aka plum pudding, plum porridge, Christmas pudding, steamed pudding). Joyeux Noel!