After Padraig Harrington gave an interview to the Today programme the other day, Evan Davis, the presenter, commented that he had never heard the phrase ‘amn’t I’ before. Perhaps he has not been to Ireland.
The Oxford English Dictionary does not seem to comment on the Irish character of the abbreviation. This interrogative form is cited only in illustration of another word entirely, in a quotation from the 1950s. Usefully, this makes the Irish link clear: ‘Haven’t I the art of a real Irish story-teller? Amn’t I the latter-day heir o’ the great bards and story-tellers?’
If one thinks of it, the English English form ‘aren’t I’ is just as odd. It depends, I think, on a non-rhotic pronunciation, in other words, aren’t pronounced as if it had no ‘r’ in, like aunt. Or do Scottish people trill the ‘r’ in aren’t? (I’m referring only to aren’t as the abbreviation of am not, not of ‘are not.)
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