Open up ya, open up ya, open up ya throat

Question: "I've noticed, exclusively with black people, that they tend to pronounce the word "ask" as "axe". I've also noticed that it's common for them to substitute an "f" for a "th"; for example, they'll pronounce "ruthless" as "roofless" or "mouth" as "mouf".

I live and work in Chicago, and I've noticed this among both ghetto dwellers and professional types...I was really surprised to hear a female black executive use the word "axe" several times.

Note that I didn't say ALL black people do this, but a significant amount do."

The Best Answer: "It is African American Vernacular English and it IS a cultural thing.

AAVE shares several characteristics with Creole English language-forms spoken by people throughout much of the world. AAVE has pronunciation, grammatical structures, and vocabulary in common with various West African languages. Including sharing many features from regional dialects from the American South.

Many people from Boston or New York sound uneducated, some say, but they are not. It's just a dialect they have learned and share as a group as solidarity. I've noticed Latinos doing the same thing, now.

Also, American English was a direct snub against the British when America was founded. It was deliberate and was to separate from a nation they no longer wanted to be associated with, and created thier own dialect, spellings, and pronunciations.

Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Waldo from Monticello on August 16, 1813;
“The new circumstances under which we are placed, call for new words, new phrases, and for the transfer of old words to new objects. An American dialect will therefore be formed.”"

My favorite answers:

1. "It's just the way they know how to talk. My mom is from Manhattan and sometimes she say "der" instead of there, or Idear...instead of idea! My mom is not Black nor does she dwell from the ghetto! I was in Chicago at Taco Bell and some White guy asked his son " hey Bahby wan a Tack-o? But he meant Hey Bobby want a taco? I'm from California. No accent here!"
2. theyve always been too lazy to use correct grammer.
   they all also say "escape" as '"excape".
   if you notice , nearly all modern vernacular comes from them.
   ie; baby momma, my bad,wut up.etc.etc.
   the large lips may impeed correct speach of "ask" & some other words however.
   ( i dont want to hear any crap about me being racist either. these are facts and everyone knows it)
3. thats because the black man is the man
   man you have no knowledge.Let me give you some.
   all breeds of dogs on earth come from the wolf
   even though they might not look nothing like the wolf. that process is called genetic selection
   and it was done by man not god. so man made the dogs you see here today though a process of
   breeding(genetic selection). AND IT IS A 100% FACT THAT YOU CAN DO THE SAME PROCESS WITH MAN
   OR ANY OTHER LIVING ORGANISM ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. AND I REPEAT THIS IS A 100% FACT. SO WHAT IM SAYING IS THAT YOU COULD ACTUALLY TAKE TWO BLACK AFRICAN PEOPLE AND PUT THEM IN A LAB
   AND CREAT ANY RACE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH OR YOU COULD CREATE A NEW RACE NEVER SEEN BEFORE IF YOU WANTED TO . AND THIS IS A COMPLETE FACT.
   
   AND ANOTHER THING. THE THING ABOUT YOU COMPARING US WITH YOUR SELF AND CALLING US ANIMALS LET ME
   TELL YOU ABOUT THAT . THE BLACK MAN IS THE DEFINITION OF THE THE WORD MALE. HUMAN BEINGS
   HAVE A FEMALE HORMONE CALLED Estrogen AND A MALE HORMONE CALLED TESTOSTERONE. THE BLACK RACE HAS THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF TESTOSTERONE WHEN COMPARED TO ANY OTHER RACE ON THE PLANET.
   I am black myself. the more you look like the apes we came from the more you look like man. white facial features are female features. black facial features are male facial features. the more
   you look like a gorilla the more you look like man and this is not a joke im 100% serious. the black race including male and female is on the male side of the chart. the white race and some
   other races are on the female side of the chart including male and female . do you not pay atension the white race in america is the king of homosexuals. even though the white female may possess the female features and the black female possesses the male features we can still make any kind shape and
   form of black people through gentic selection. so thoughs female features are stolen they belong to our black females.

From Yahoo Answers