I know the correct pronunciation (I think) of the words "ask" and "asked", but I quite often hear them pronounced as "ahks" and "ahksed" (almost like an "r" sound). I've heard it both in conversation and on television shows (both Australian and American).
Are these pronunciations due to dialect, or are they alternative pronunciations or incorrect pronunciations? If they are the correct pronunciation, should I use them or the "normal" pronunciation?
Answer
One of the earliest instances of the verb ask occurs in Old English as acsian. As the etymological note in the Oxford English Dictionary explains, acsian and axian survived down to nearly 1600 as the regular literary form, but was supplanted in Standard English by ask, originally the northern form.
As you have observed, a(h)ks is still heard in regional dialects. There is no doubt, however, that the standard form is ask, both in writing and in speech, and it is that form that foreign learners of English should use.
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