No, I amn’t
Awhile back, Andy contrived his own new contraction: “amn’t.” As in, “Andy, you’re strange.” “No, I amn’t.”
Because I was an English major and because I don’t want to perpetuate the decline of our American English, I quickly corrected him each time and he now says, “No, I’m not.” Whew!
The problem is the “monkey do syndrome.” Connor is now saying it. Groan.
I was on the phone to my niece the other day and Connor was reaching for the phone to talk to her. He had just eaten oatmeal (some with his hands) and was sticky. I said, “Connor, no. You can’t talk to Leigha yet. You’re all sticky.”
His lower lip immediately pooched out and he adamantly said, “NO. I AMN’T!”
Ugh. Here we go again.
Added note: What’s more disconcerting is that the spell checker didn’t catch “amn’t” as being incorrect. YIKES!