Aks

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. An alternative pronunciation and spelling historically used for the verb meaning to inquire or request information ; a nonstandard form that appears in dialectal speech as a substitute for the standard interrogative verb ; a variant reflecting linguistic evolution or phonetic variation in certain English-speaking communities
2. A colloquial or dialectal rearrangement of the verb that signifies seeking an answer or posing a question ; a nonconventional form occasionally encountered in informal language or literature ; an example of phonetic shift where the consonants of the standard verb are reversed for dialectal effect
3. A nonstandard but recognized variant of the verb used to express the act of asking ; a form arising from regional pronunciation differences and informal speech ; a linguistic phenomenon illustrating how speech sounds may be transposed while retaining original meaning

Etymology: The verb "aks" is the older, and still widely spoken, form of "ask," and its history is one of the clearest examples of metathesis in English: the two sounds "s" and "k" swapped places. Old English had "ascian" and "acsian," both forms existing side by side, and the "aks" pattern never disappeared from the spoken language. It survived especially in African American Vernacular English and in various regional dialects, while the standard written form settled on "ask." Linguists generally regard the swap as a natural slip in pronunciation, since "sk" and "ks" are both easy consonant clusters to produce, and the reversed order was not a sign of ignorance or error. Many English words have undergone similar shifts, such as "bird," which was once "brid," and "wasp," which was once "waps."

Synonyms: ask