20th
It’s good to know that we weren’t the only ones driven crazy by people who “axe” questions.
Okay, see, we talked about this linguisitic phenomenon in my grammar class. I don’t remember what it’s called, but it happens with other words, too - my professor used an example of “uncomfortable.” When you say it out loud, most likely, it sounds more like “un-comf-ter-ble,” thus mixing up the position of the r and the t, like how the k and the s are mixed in this speech pattern. However, not many people are out here acting high and mighty because someone said “uncomfterble” like they are with “ax,” and that has absolutely everything to do with academic biases - because “ax” is associated mostly with Black people (and occasionally lower-class whites), it’s viewed as “improper” speech, whereas most people, even middle & upper class white people who are thought to speak the most ~proper~ version of English, say “uncomfterble.”
And a quick Google search yields that even Chaucer used “axe” to mean “ask” within his writing. (Source) (Source)
tl;dr actually caring about whether someone says “ask” ~”correctly”~~ is rooted in racist & classist biases of language so, consider, not.
Most linguistic pedantry is inherently racist in nature.
See also: making fun of people who say “lie-berry.”
(Source: theyuniversity, via thisiswhiteprivilege)
