Huh, I wonder if “ask” has regional variations… I hear “ast” a lot instead, where the k becomes a t sound. “I ast’d him….” and I’ll fall into that, too, unless I’m really annunciating. Never heard “aks” before!
How do we all say our? I say it the same as “hour” (I think because of the way it’s spelled) but most people around me say the same as “are.”
I pronounce the t in often.
I also say “matt-chure” and “coo-pon” and my “scone” rhymes with “cone.”
I say your and you’re slightly differently; I think I started as a little kid when I learned the different spellings. Helped to keep them separate for me—the first is “yore” and the second is more like a “you-er.” Same with there their and they’re—the first is “there,” the third is “they-er” and the middle one is something in between. Probably (hopefully?) it’s indistinguishable when I’m speaking…
Yeah, I said Du Bois’s name “du bwah” until I was told! Aha… Another one I want to mispronounce is Coleridge… really want it to be “collar-idge” but it’s “coal-ridge.” And I want Yeats to be “yeets” but it’s “yates” ... doesn’t help that Keats is “keets.”