The Word Amn't

A few months ago, I was having a conversation with my mother when the word “amn’t” unauthorizedly slipped out of my mouth. I was attempting to say “I am not,” but my brain momentarily failed, and I instead stated, “I amn’t,” giving my mom a good laugh. Yet, after we joked for a few moments about my mistake, I began to wonder: “What exactly is incorrect about ‘amn’t’?” and “Why don’t we use it every day?” To me, it makes sense that ‘amn’t’ would be grammatically correct; after all, every other present tense, negative form of the verb ‘to be’ has two contracted versions. For example, “We are not” can be said as both ‘we’re not’ and ‘we aren’t’ and ‘he is not’ can be said as both ‘he’s not’ and ‘he isn’t’. So why isn’t ‘amn’t’ used? To answer this question, I turned to the internet; what I found was fascinating.

In my search, I stumbled across British writer and etymologist, Michael Quinion. Quinion attended Cambridge University and spent his early years working for BBC Radio before beginning his work with the Oxford English Dictionary in 1992 and later on writing his own dictionary and several books about language. In 1996, he created a website titled World Wide Words; and on this website, he dedicated an entire page to the history and use of ‘amn’t’. To my surprise, I found that ‘amn’t’ has a fairly complex story. First of all, despite not being used in the United States or Britain today, I learned that it is frequently used in Scotland and Ireland, often in the form, ‘amn’t I’. Historically speaking, however, ‘amn’t’ was used broadly as far back as the late 1600s. However, as the English language developed, ‘amn’t’ turned into ‘an’t’. Quinion hypothesizes that this shift was most likely caused by speakers finding the ‘mn’ in ‘amn’t’ difficult and impractical to pronounce. As such, ‘an’t’ can be found in literature from the late seventeenth century through the beginning of the nineteenth century. But the evolution of the contraction did not stop there. Due to the way in which many pronounced the ‘a’ in ‘an’t’, the word ‘ain’t’ was born and quickly gained popularity. But, in the eighteenth century, those working in literature started a crusade against ‘an’t’ and ‘ain’t’, and encouraged other writers not to use them in their work. As a result, ‘ain’t’ became stuck with long-lasting negative connotations, and ‘an’t’ was abandoned.

From this ten-minute Google search, I took away two things. First of all, ‘amn’t’ should still be a word. It is not that difficult to say, and it would complete the verb’s pattern, providing more uniformity and structure to our language. Secondly, ‘ain’t’, is not nearly as incorrect as we make it out to be.  In fact, now that I know the history of the contraction, I’m inclined to argue that it’s more illogical to completely disregard the established linguistic pattern than it is to use a variation of ‘amn’t’ such as ‘ain’t’. So, I encourage all readers to begin using ‘amn’t’ in their daily lives and not to scoff at those who use ‘ain’t’. Both make complete logical and grammatical sense and revitalizing ‘amn’t’ eliminates an obvious irregularity in the English language. I amn’t going to wait any longer and neither should you; the age of ‘amn’t is here!