Re: Why "aren't I"?

Brian M. Scott wrote:
[...]


"Amn't" is two syllables, with the break between the /m/ and the /n/,


Not for me: the first syllable is ['æ], and the second is
[mn.t] or [m@nt]. (And I've used the word.) I might also
accept a claim that the /m/ is ambisyllabic, though that's
not the way I perceive it.

I was surprised at the agreement that "amn't" is two syllables. I wonder if that is the universal judgment of those who know the word.

I don't remember ever hearing or using it (but I won't be 71 until next month, so I still have a lot to learn). Reading "amn't I," I discover that I am "intuitively" inclined to pronounce it the same as "amp dye."

Wouldn't you suppose that the predecessor of "an't" would have had to be a one-syllable word?

Bart Mathias
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