Jul 28, 2009
An oversimplified version of how am not became aren’t thanks to non-American accents.
- am not > amn’t
- amn’t > an’t (pronounced non-Americanly, ahn’t)
- an’t is homophonous with aren’t
- The spelling of an’t adjusted to match its homophone.
(Read the more thorough explanation I took this from.)
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You ended your parenthetic note with a preposition. Aren’t you sad? Isn’t this something to repent of?
That doesn’t make sense. You only use the word “am” with “I” (1st person). You don’t say “I aren’t” so why would “aren’t” come from “am not”?
I wondered the same thing, but check out the linked article for the usage–makes sense there.
When I was a kid, I read juvenile novels that my mother had saved from her childhood in the late 20s-early 30s. That’s where I ran into “amn’t.”
I thought aren’t was “are not” rather than “am not.”
I am right, am I not?=I’m right, aren’t I?
Am I not right?=Aren’t I right?
I can think only think of ‘aren’t I’ being used in place of ‘am I’ when the sentence is a question.
I’ve wondered about that! Thanks!
yes, Abraham/that article is referring to “aren’t” used with the first-person singular “I” in question contexts. (although a few nonstandard dialects did/do use “I aren’t.”)
anyway, i would only add to this that it wasn’t the changing of the spelling that probably influenced us to say “aren’t I.” obviously, it’s unlikely that speakers simply suddenly forgot that AHNT EYE was really “am not I,” so this is likely a case of younger generations mistaking the two AHNT homophones as one and the same word. and THEN the spelling was changed.
what i wonder is that, since many dialects have switched between being “R-less” and “R-ful”, and other English dialects have always pronounced R, what motivation would “R-ful” speakers have to reanalyze AHNT as “aren’t”?
I always thought it was a hypercorrection to use of the word ain’t to use aren’t I in rhotic dialects. Ain’t I right? Well, perhaps not, I gather, though written representation always bears an interesting relation to spoken language.
“Aren’t” and “an’t” are not homophonous in the south.
But then, “are” and “our” are homophonous in the south, so who am I to nit-pick?