From: Rick McCallister
Message: 62857
Date: 2009-02-05
> From: Brian M. Scott <BMScott@...>For my kinfolk, it was either "Am I not?" or "Ain't I?", "Are you not" vs. "Aincha?", although those who had lived in the city did say "aren't you/arncha?". etc.
> Subject: Re[4]: [tied] Re: s-stems in Slavic and Germanic
> To: "Rick McCallister" <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Thursday, February 5, 2009, 4:52 PM
> At 4:40:12 PM on Thursday, February 5, 2009, Rick
> McCallister wrote:
>
> > --- On Thu, 2/5/09, Brian M. Scott
> <BMScott@...>
> > wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> >> Whereas I grew up with [aren't I] and consider
> it the
> >> normal conversational form.
>
> > My parents, from West Virginia, done learned me good
> and
> > teached me to say "Am I not," which the last
> I checked was
> > the standard form and the normal form in everyday
> > conversation.
>
> I was distinguishing conversational <aren't I>
> from formal
> <am I not>, which in most contexts sounds a bit
> stilted even
> to me.
>
> Brian