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OP The contraction of "I am not" is grammatically unusual in that it can only go in one direction. Whereas all other persons can do either – "she is not" becoming "she's not" or "she isn't" – "I am not" in statements has to become "I'm not", never "I amn't".
But in questions the second form of contraction is the only one possible: "is she not?" (or "is not she?" as Jane Austen could say and we no longer can) can only become "isn't she?". Here "am" is parallel: "am I not?" becomes "amn't I?".
Of course it's almost never written amn't or an't, though these both exist. It's invariably written aren't these days.
In my dialect the vowel change am -> aant is the same as the change in can -> caant, so I don't feel anything odd about it. And it makes no difference whether I spell it amn't, an't, or aren't, as it's pronounced the same.
However, do Americans, or anyone with a rhotic accent, feel this is odd? Do you actually pronounce the R in aren't in this case? So does it feel like an anomalous substitution of person? Or does the alternation am ~ aren't feel normal and unexceptionable?
(This was sparked by seeing a site that claimed that ain't was historically a pronunciation of amn't – I don't know whether this is true, and at the moment don't care.)
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted amn't NicholasW 05/03/01 09:18 AM Re: amn't Capital Kiwi 05/03/01 09:58 AM Re: amn't NicholasW 05/03/01 10:27 AM Re: amn't Jackie 05/03/01 10:46 AM Re: amn't NicholasW 05/03/01 11:09 AM Re: amn't/ain't Faldage 05/03/01 12:38 PM Re: amn't/ain't Bean 05/03/01 12:50 PM Re: amn't/ain't rodward 05/04/01 11:11 AM Re: amn't/ain't Jackie 05/04/01 12:16 PM Re: amn't Jackie 05/03/01 01:24 PM Re: amn't Faldage 05/03/01 01:51 PM Re: amn't wow 05/03/01 02:21 PM Re: ain't Scribbler 05/03/01 03:45 PM Re: amn't paulb 05/06/01 10:39 AM Re: amn't wow 05/07/01 01:28 PM Re: amn't Bobyoungbalt 05/03/01 02:37 PM Re: amn't wow 05/03/01 02:53 PM Re: amn't Hyla 05/03/01 03:28 PM Re: amn't Bobyoungbalt 05/03/01 03:38 PM Re: Cod and God. wow 05/03/01 04:11 PM Re: ahnt satin 05/03/01 07:30 PM Re: ahnt AnnaStrophic 05/03/01 08:38 PM Re: ahnt nancyk 05/03/01 09:11 PM Re: ahnt des 05/06/01 11:00 PM Re: amn't Max Quordlepleen 05/03/01 09:50 PM Re: amn't Capital Kiwi 05/04/01 07:03 AM
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