I amn’t completely opposed to the concept
Poor ain’t. I’ve never said it but in jest. Though it is thoroughly dialect-related, accepting dialects (with the possible exception of rock lyrics that need one syllable contractions) are dismissed as the rantings of the uneducated and poor.
We have spots for most negating contractions in our language. Except the first person continuous of to be. There, we would logically have amn’t. But that’s really tough to say. Ain’t could save the day[, as it was originally meant to] .
But ain’t doesn’t stop there. It creeps into second person and third person formations, replacing the usable aren’t and isn’t. Now, to be is a miserably irregular verb, and maybe it’s in some need of polishing. And since in English, second person and third person are modified by names or pronouns (Joshua, you, he, she, it), there is no confusion. “I ain’t who you think I am.” “You ain’t who I thought you were.” “He ain’t who he claims he is.” No ambiguity. Useful word.
But ain’t doesn’t stop there. It, bizarrely, replaces hasn’t and haven’t? No? How about “He ain’t been here in three weeks?” Right? But try as I might, I have not been able to construct a sentence in which ain’t is ambiguous, even in this hugely expanded sense. Ain’t in this case is always (as far as I can see) followed by a past participle, while the others are not. I’d like to be proven wrong here.
But ain’t doesn’t stop there, either. More to the point, ain’t don’t stop there neither. It is almost always accompanied by a munged form of doesn’t (poor, sweet doesn’t, who never hurt anyone!) and a double-negative, which we all know don’t make no sense.
But is ain’t, properly used, salvageable? Be my guest. I cannot help, at this point, because it is unsalvageable while one is on the job market. And that, socioeconomically, just about says it all.
Other uses of ain’t? Other thoughts?
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January 31st, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I think “ain’t” originally was a contraction for “am not” a few centuries ago, actually.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:31 pm
You’re right, and I knew that, actually. I meant, it could be restored to its original, proper meaning if well-meaning intelligent people started using it.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:17 am
I ain’t got no clue… Haha, living where I live (VA), I hear many people use it on a daily basis. I believe that’s the reason why I (subconsciously) decided not to use “ain’t” early on in life. Nothing against the useful little word, but it would honestly just sound wrong coming out of my mouth.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:51 am
Weird, Kari, I thought you were from Seattle this whole time, for some reason. You’re just way too cool for Virginia.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:58 pm
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Indeed. Thanks to misogynist sf author Heinlein for the popularization. Fellow misogynist sf author Niven, giving Heinlein a reacharound, has his characters saying things like “What the tanj“, where tanj means There Ain’t No Justice.
(Yes, I do mean “like” (simile), not “such as” (example).) I’m not sure if my quote is precise.)
February 4th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Wow! What gave off the vibe that I was from Seattle?
February 4th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
That you ain’t nothin’ but the coolest chick in all these parts, sister.
February 5th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
misogynist sf author
The percentage of cases where this phrase is not redundant is small enough that one may safely round it to zero. The percentage may increase to as high as 10% if one removes the “sf” from the phrase.