There was a guy I knew when I lived up in Virginia. He was the first guy I ever met that routinely used the phrase “axe” when he was obviously trying to say “ask.” And I’d routinely call him out on it, and blurt out “AXE” whenever he said it. Or whenever I’d have a query for him, I’d say, “let me AXE you something,” putting an excessive amount of emphasis on the axe part. Although if you saw the guy, you’d think black guy, but in truth, he was from the Virgin Islands, if that makes any difference.
Anyway for a while, the epidemic of people using the word axe kind of vanished from my radar. Either I wasn’t noticing it around me, or I just wasn’t around enough inquiring people to put myself in scenarios where questions were to be axed. But at least over the span of the last few years, I have noticed that people have been using the word “axe” in place of “ask” a lot more frequently, and I can’t help but notice that they’re all black.
So naturally, my inquiring assumption is that the verb “ask” has an Ebonic counterpart in the word “axe.” Despite the fact that the word “axe” is a noun, meaning a well known tool and/or weapon.