@ocjusticeinitiative Have you heard of AAVE?! African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a variety of American English spoken by many Black people in America. It is a distinct dialect with its own unique grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Also known as Black English, Ebonics, or African American Language, AAVE is primarily spoken in informal and casual settings. The origins of AAVE are rooted in the history of slavery in the United States and are a subject of ongoing debate among linguis

The swap of "ask" to "axe" is a linguistic process called metathesis, where sounds trade places in a word. This was so common in Middle English that both "ascian" and "acsian" existed as verbs in Old English. Geoffrey Chaucer famously used the term in his "Wife of Bath's Prologue," writing, "I axe, why the fyfte man Was nought housband to the Samaritan?". The pronunciation wasn’t just a literary quirk; it was standard speech. While "ask" eventually became dominant, "axe" persisted in southern En