Negative Verb Contractions in the Present 3 



also Cooper, The Pioneers (1823), vii, "Ain't Marmaduke a 

 judge?"; lb., xx, "The Squire ain't far out of the way"; W. G. 

 Simms, Gtiy Rivers (1835), vi, "I ain't the man to deny the 

 truth" ; lb., "1 ain't slow to say that" ; lb., xxx, "I an't afraid." 



In present American dictionaries (cf. the Century, Standard, 

 etc.) an't is not entered as obsolete or obsolescent; although a 

 fairly close survey of contemporary American colloquial and dia- 

 lect literature reveals no examples, but rather, in contrast with 

 results for the first half of the nineteenth century, the complete 

 ascendancy of ain't. It would seem time to enter an't as dying, 

 or dead, in America, and restricted to dialect speech in England. 



In the London Illustrated Nezvs, April 4, 1903. occurs, in a 

 story by "Q", the form atnn't, "Am I captain here, or anin't I?" 

 The story is Cornish, and the contraction probably local, hence 

 belongs rather to dialect than to general English. 



In the eighteenth century, lasting into the nineteenth, the 

 expected han't was the familiar contraction of have not, has not. 

 Cf. Congreve, IVay of the World, 1700, III, iii, "Why then, be- 

 like, my aunt han't dined"; De Foe, Colonel Jack (1722), iii. 

 "No, it is well if you han't"; Sheridan, Rivals (1775), I, i, "I 

 doubt, Mr. Fag, you han't changed for the better" ; Dickens, 

 Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), xii, "Why han't you gone to 

 Lawyer Lightwood ?" ; George Eliot, Mill on the Floss ( i860) . 

 xi, "We han't got no treacle." So in America, Simms, Guy 

 Rivers (1835), vi, "Han't I told you"; lb., "Here's none of us 

 that han't something to say agin that pedler" ; Judd, Margaret 

 (T855), II, xii, "Marm han't said." For hain't, cf. Simms, Guy 

 Rivers, vi, "Hain't he lied and cheated"; lb., "L, who hain't the 

 courage"; lb., "We hain't got much law and justice in these 

 pairts"; M. C. Graham, Stories of the Foothills (1895), i, "He 

 hain't no notion o' doing that," "If I'd really had any idee . 

 . . btit I hain't"; J. Fox, Jr., Little Shepherd of Kingdom 

 Come (1903), "I hain't got no daddy, an I hain't never had 

 I'lone." 



There was confusion between an't and han't, as now between 

 ain't and hain't. For the use of an't for han't cf. Sheridan. 



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