Re: USAGE: Aren't/Amn't

Melissa Phong wrote:
> Can anybody tell me how this developed in English? Why is it grammatically
> correct to say "aren't I" instead of "amn't I"?
Because, the original form was "an't" < "am/are not".  Then, what
happened was _an't_ gained an _r_, becoming _aren't_, but since one
could say either _I a(re)n't_ or _I'm not_, the first was lost, since it
was so closely associated with _are_, but since there was no alternate
for the question form _aren't I?_, it stayed.

Incidentally, _ain't_ is a sort of hybrid word, derived from a combining
of ealier _an't_ and _hain't_ (has/have not)

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