On the wonderful World Wide Words e-magazine from Michael Quinion a question from two separate sources,Fred A. Roth and Shailesh Ramanuj, was the springboard to a fascinating journey through a bit of the English language in which we meet a lost word and its uncouth cousin. It started with a strange question. "Why don't we say 'amn't'?" Then a conundrum is brought forth that I never knew existed. "We," for example has the negative contractions "we're not" and "we aren't." Similar double-contraction forms exist for "they," "he/she," and "you." "I," though only has "I'm not."
The answer to the question points out that "amn't" was once very much in play on our tongues and led to "ain't." The whole fascinating tale may be found here.
I amn't happy about the loss the word and think that it would be clever to bring it back into usage.
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