4 Louise Pound 



Rivals (1775), IV, i, "I suppose there an't been so merciless a 

 beast in the world"; Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), xii, 

 "Have you finished?" "No, I an't"; Bleak House (1852-53), 

 yiii, "No, I an't read the little book wot you left," etc. Han't 

 for an't is found in Pickzvick Papers (1836-37), xi, "Where's 

 that villain Joe!" "Here I am; but I han't a willin." Examples 

 of ain't for hain't are : Dickens, Bleak House, "We ain't got no 

 watches to tell the time by" ; S. O. Jewett, A Dunnet Shepherd- 

 ess (1899), vii, "Ain't William been gone?"; lb., Where's 

 ^\oraf "i\\n't you got the Queen's luck?" The still more illit- 

 erate hain't for ain't is heard often, but is less frequently writ- 

 ten, "I hain't nothing but a boy," J. Fox, Jr., Little Shepherd of 

 Kingdom Come, 1903 ; "Oh, you're a reglar tin peddler, hain't 

 yer?"; "You ain't green," "You bet I hain't"; Julian Ralph, 

 Trip with a Tin Peddler, Harper's Mag., 1903 ; "Dat rifle hain't 

 neber gwine kick," Her Freedom, negro story by V. F. Boyle, 

 Century, Feb., 1903. In the latter story was noted an example 

 of ain't for don't, "I sho ain' want ter mairy Rias." Negro dia- 

 lect has cain't, beside ain't and hain't, as "I cain't go in dar — ^no 

 I cain't," Ih. 



As suggested in opening, an't and han't some time ago found 

 their way into the dictionaries, ain't and hain't more recently. 

 Bailey enters none of the four forms; Dr. Johnson han't only. 

 An edition of Webster's Dictionary, as late as 1855, when ain't 

 had become about as widespread as an't (cf. examples supra) 

 enters an't, han't only. Both Webster's Dictionary and the Im- 

 perial Dictionary (1856), based on Webster's, give the following 

 curious etymology : 



"An't, in our vulgar dialect, as in the phrases, I an't, you an't, 

 he an't, we an't, etc., is undoubtedly a contraction of the 

 Danish er, ere, the substantive verb, in the present tense of the 

 indicative mode, and not; I er-not, we ere-not, he cr-not; or of 

 the Swedish (rr, the same verb ; infinitive vara, to be. These 

 phrases are doubtless legitimate remains of the Gothic dialect." 



With regard to the vowel sounds in the contracted forms an't, 



226 



