[Augustine23642]

Pronouncing “ask” as “ax” probably results from having grown up hearing it that way. Why do many black people (and probably a fair number of white people) have problems pronouncing it correctly? Who knows? Pronouncing words “by the letters” is a (white) American English trait nurtured in the early years of this country by a school system that sought to assimilate many different nationalities. British English is somewhat less precise in this way – while Oxbridge “Received Pronunciation” is very standardized, some regional variants of English pronunciation are virtually unintelligible (think of The Full Monty).

As far as “talking like you heard people talk growing up,” think of people who say “ain’t,” “would have went” and so on. They grow up hearing this, and even if they are taught correctly in school, their home and peer life influence them more, and “correct” pronunciation gets left at school instead of being taken into life.

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Name : Augustine23642, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, City : Columbia, State : SC, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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