Letters: You say ‘ask,’ I say ‘ax’ -- and that’s fine
Re “Problems with pronunciation,” Letters, Jan. 21
The Times’ heading for the letters to the editor responding to linguist John McWhorter’s Op-Ed article “Just don’t ‘ax’” is as far off the mark as the letters themselves.
“Ax” is not a “problem” with pronunciation. It is an alternative pronunciation of a English word that is used by African Americans (and some others). It is no more a “problem” than the British pronunciation of “lieutenant” as “leftenant,” the New Zealand pronunciation of “fed” as “fid,” or the Boston pronunciation of “car” as “cah.”
Only prejudice against the groups who use these variants causes them to be seen as problems. Otherwise they are seen (correctly) as part of the great, diverse patchwork of pronunciations in English.
Alexandra Jaffe
Lakewood
The writer is a professor of linguistics at Cal State Long Beach.
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