Though it seems kind of weird, two consonants switching places is a actually a pretty common sound change. It is know as Metathesis.
There are lots of examples on the Wiki page, but some from Old English are:
‘horse’ from ‘hros’,
‘bird’ from ‘bryd’,
‘wasp’ from ‘wæps’,
and even ‘third’ from ‘three’.
Iron. Which used to be pronounced [ai ron].
“Bird” used to be “brid”. In that case the spelling changed to reflect the pronunciation. The reversal of sounds happens relatively often. We don’t base our pronunciations on spellings, we base them on how we learn to pronounce them.
If I had any money, I’d bet some that you typically pronounce it “ast”.
Pretty much everyone does.
No. Not in the least. I say asked, the way it’s spelled. I have no reason to lie to you about his.
Shtreet is easier to pronounce than street. (Sh is a lot more like the following sound, which is not in most dialects a ‘t’ sound but rather a ‘ch’ sound.)
That said, it’s not like you can really explain every alternative pronunciation in terms of “laziness” or what’s “easier.”
In which case it has changed back to the original, as it is derived from Latin “vespa”.
But it is extremely common for people not to know this kind of thing about themselves.
I had a funny conversation once with a friend about the fact that the word “truck” is almost universally pronounced “chruck.” She insisted she didn’t pronounce it this way, and demonstrated several times, being as carefully as she possibly could. She couldn’t hear it for some reason, but she was unquestionably saying “chruck”, not “truck.”
And you are almost certainly saying “ast,” not “asked,” when saying the word in normal casual conversation.
Great, now I’m sitting at work talking out loud to myself! 
I see what you mean, and there’s perhaps a bit of smooshing together of sounds in there if I try to talk quickly.
I still don’t think it sounds like “ast,” but it may not sound exactly like “asked” either. Somewhere between the two: if that’s possible.
You’re speaking in extremely general terms here. I’m willing to consider that for some English speakers, “axe” is easier to pronounce than “ask”. But for “the human race as a whole”? I’m not buying that.
Leaffan mentioned Brett Favre. His last name comes from French, and except for the last ‘e’ which isn’t voiced, is pronounced basically the way it’s spelled in French. (It’s not an especially common name, but I’ve seen it, and its variant “Fabre”, elsewhere.) In English, it’s pronounced “Farv”. Which one is objectively easier to say? Or is it that the French pronunciation isn’t natural to English speakers, so they change it to something that’s more natural to them?
ETA:
I don’t pronounce “asked” exactly like the “ast” in “fast”, but the difference is slight.
Same here. I’d feel like I were speaking black English if I were to say (for example), “I ast the accountant where my records were.” Because I don’t know all of the fancy rules for transliterating spoken speech, I prounce it (and generally hear it) as ask’d. Really, and seriously. Hearing ast would be quite jarring unless I were in rural Oklahoma or some place where they speak like that.
The dope often does this to me as well.
The intricate enunciation of words tends to evolve towards from complex to the less complex.
I base my comment on 2 things:
how small babies first talk – they say “can I ass/ax for a cookie” instead of “can I ask for a cookie” – “ass” or “ax” is easier for them to pronounce.
how many adults that properly pronounce “ask” lose that intricate enunciation when drunk or under heavy sedatives. If ass/axe/ask were truly all equal in pronunciation effort, then the drunk would “regress” from ass to ask and that doesn’t happen.
In both cases, we regress to the bare minimum and expend the least amount of mouth energy to be intelligible.
I’ve done a lot of audio recording where enunciation is critical. If the diction wasn’t clear and crisp, we had to redo the take again. If the voice talent hasn’t gotten enough sleep, that’s enough to cause a noticeable drop in enunciation. Ask becomes ass/axe quite easily under fatigue or drunkenness.
Frylock, I’m not claiming that every pronunciation variation is explained by laziness.
People tend to regress into their dialect when they are drunk. I’ve never heard of anyone who did not say “axe” around their family or friends say it when drunk. I know I certainly don’t.
Huh. I’ll have to pay attention. I’ve always said “askt.” Definite back-of-the-throat “k” in there.
To clarify, I’m not saying being drunk guarantees that the person will say “axe.”
I’m saying if a person succumbs to intoxication, sedatives, or fatigue and if their pronunciation changes – it’s not going to change from the less complex to the more complex. That “k” sound on the trailing end of “ask” adds slightly more complexity to the the sound. It’s fragile and intricate. We shouldn’t be so surprised if all English speakers (who aren’t drunk or tired) drop the “k” sound after 200 years.
You seem to be arguing that “cou-” has a standard pronunciation, and that “cue” isn’t it.
But your examples don’t support that at all. There are at least six different pronunciations there (in my dialect at least)
cough: caw
council, counter: cow
coup, coupe: coo
couple, couplet, cousin: cuh
courage: cur
court, course: coar
So, why couldn’t “cue” also be a valid pronunciation for that spelling? Clearly there’s nothing in the spelling that suggests a standard pronunciation.
I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. I was replying to someone who I thought was taking your claim too far in that direction, referring to your “logic” as though you did think every language change is driven by a drive to simplification.
I’d say that’s quite possible, even probable.
I’m sitting here talking to myself too, and realizing that saying the full k sound immediately followed by the full d sound feels clumsy and cumbersome, and virtually nobody does it.
That said, I’m not dropping the k altogether; more like I’m sort of giving up on it halfway through before moving on to the d.
This all assumes, of course, that the e is silent. Asked would be more easily pronounced if it weren’t, like in pointed, for instance. Yet it sounds funny only because we don’t traditionally say it that way. Are there any dialects that do so?
Irish people also pronounce these words in the way you’ve described. Are you sure about which pronunciation is the innovation?
No, not sure at all. Texas-talk was where I heard it first, but it certainly could come from another source…probably did in fact. It’s interesting that in the rural Ozark region (which is pretty close to Texas, geographically and culturally) linguists in the 1930’s identified dialects that were remarkably close to Elizabethan English. They theorized that these places were so isolated that the language of the earliest settlers had stayed fairly “pure”. Is it possible that Irish-English, “Ozarkese” and Texas-speak all hark back to that original source? Intriguing idea.
SS